The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $10 million to the Smithsonian Institution, which will go towards the construction of the new African-American History and Culture Museum, set to open on the National Mall in Washington D.C. by late 2015.
The total cost of the project is expected to be $500 million dollars. Half of the money will be provided by congressional appropriation, but the other half will come from philanthropic foundations and donors like Gates. The building was designed by a consortium of prominent architecture firms, including the Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates, Davis Brody Bond, and SmithGroup. David Adjaye is the lead designer, and Phillip Freelon will serve as the structure’s design guarantor. The 300,000-square-foot building will occupy five acres next to the Washington Monument, and groundbreaking is expected to begin in 2012.
The founding director of the museum, Lonnie G. Bunch III, said "[w]e are so pleased that the Gates Foundation has joined donors from across the country who have built a groundswell of support for this museum. We recognize this as a vote of confidence and a genuine honor." The museum was established by congressional act in 2003 and will be the 19th in the Smithsonian system. Curators and historians are already building a large collection of objects and artifacts for the museum’s exhibits.
The Gates Foundation was established by billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 1994, and has passed through several iterations on its way to becoming the largest charitable private foundation in the world, with an endowment of $26 billion. The foundation works primarily on improving global health and assisting the economically disadvantaged in America and worldwide.
[...] FULL ARTICLE HERE [...]