YouSaid · the spoken record

Lonnie Bunch

lines on the record: 27
first: 2020-09-18
most recent: 2020-09-18
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“In part, as an American, the Smithsonian is this amazing treasure that it really is a reservoir that the public can dip into to not just understand the past, but to have a better sense about who we are now and really point us towards a better future. It is a reservoir that says you want to understand about space. We're here to do that. You want to understand about our history. We're also able to help you do that. You want to see the creativity of people artistically. We're here to do that as well. So in some ways the Smithsonian really is a great source of information and creativity that I want the public to really draw from. And so I feel honored to be the secretary. I feel humbled to be honest, to be the secretary because every day I learn something new and I want the public to be able to learn from the Smithsonian every day.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because you told me to. What I really, realized is that I loved what I did. And I knew that I had the best view I could see everything. The story is I took President Obama through the museum and he came to my office and he said, you got a better view than I do. And I said, well, you only worked eight years. I worked 11. But I realized that I didn't need to accomplish anything, so I could give everything to the Smithsonian. This was really my opportunity to say, how do I bring more than 25 years of Smithsonian experience to the fore? How do I give back to the place that has meant so much to me? And how do I help the Smithsonian really rethink itself as a 21st century institution?”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He did. He would say to me, you've got to let me cut the ribbon. And so that was great. I'd go to the construction people and say, I was talking to the president. He says we've got to move a little quicker.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was terrified. I was terrified that I would mess up. I was terrified that somebody would not enjoy themselves. I was terrified that we wouldn't get the crowds that I hoped. And instead, we got tens of thousands of people on the mall. It became an opportunity where I thought some of the best speechmaking I've ever heard. I thought President Bush gave a powerful speech about how a great nation confronts its history, doesn't run from it. President Obama talked, oh, just beautifully about what this meant to him and his family, but clearly the late John Lewis stole the show, talked about how this museum was the culmination of the civil rights movement for him, and that this was really something that he was proudest of. And I'll be honest, I was so grateful to be able to help fulfill his dream. It was just a special day.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“2016 It became a who's who. I mean, on the stage was President Bush, President of Mrs. Obama. I was seated next to John Lewis, the Chief Justice was there. Other senior people from the Smithsonian. And in the audience were a who's who, almost every political figure was there. So many people from entertainment and sport. And what I was so moved by is the people who wanted to participate in the program, Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith and Robert De Niro so that it really became more than I could have ever imagined. It was less an opening of a museum and more a celebration of a culture.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I didn't. I knew it would be popular. It's the Smithsonian, but it really has become a pilgrimage site. So we had to actually say you have to have tickets to get people in because the crowds were so great.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We had no artifacts whatsoever, and at some point I thought, well, do we just do it without artifacts? But it's the Smithsonian. People come to see the Wrights Flyer or the Ruby Slipper, so we needed to find these objects. And I didn't know exactly how to do it. And one day I sort of fell asleep in front of the television. And I woke up, an antique roadshow was on. I had never heard of it. And so I suddenly said, what a great idea. So I stole the idea, called it Saving African American Treasures.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When I told my mother that I had to raise that amount of money, she said that's more money than God can count. So I wasn't sure, but one of my great strengths is to be able to sort of look at the big picture and then put my head down and do the work. And so slowly but surely it began to work.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The museum basically costs $550 million to build. And we raised about $620 million to do that. Half of it was paid by the federal government and half by wonderful philanthropists and donors.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, I wasn't sure how many no's there were. I knew that there was no plan and I knew that there was no site. But I didn't know there were no staff. Being an African American running a major museum in Chicago nurtured my soul. I was really happy. But I realized that if I could help build this museum, we could really both nurture the souls of my ancestors, but we could help America really grapp with race. So that's what brought me back.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right, I was at American history for 12 years and wasn't going to leave. And Chicago recruited me and I really wasn't planning on going, but I had a meeting with the mayor and the governor of Illinois, and they said, this is a city that has been tortured by race. And if you could come and be the only African-American running one of our major institutions and do well, what an impact you could have. And that appealed to me. So I came back and I came to Chicago and loved it and had planned to stay there the rest of my career when I got the call to think about would you like to come back and help build the National of African American History and Culture?”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I went away to run to be the first curator of the California African American Museum. It was the first state funded museum that explored issues of race. And I went there before the Olympics of 1984. So my big job was to do a major exhibition of history of blacks in the Olympics. You know, the Smithsonian taught me how to be a scholar. Didn't really teach me how to be a curator.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Aaron's face was everything. I met my wife there. I learned about how to be a curator there. I learned about the wonders of the Smithsonian. So for me, my whole life has been shaped in part by the Smithsonian.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I said, I'm a 19th century historian. I know nothing about air, space, and I hate airplanes. And then he said language that was so instructive to me as a secretary. He said, young man, how much money are you making now? And I told him. He said, you make four times that if you become and work for me at the Aaron Space Museum. I said, I'll become an Aaron Space employee. And that's really how my career began, by luck.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There were very few teaching jobs. And I remember at the end of my graduate career, I was broke. I was living on a teaching assistant salary, and there was a returning student. She was 40 years old. And she said to me, you should go down to the Smithsallian because her husband worked there and you could maybe get a job. And I remember saying to her, who works at the Smithsonian? It's where you take dates because it's free. I mean, that was my notion of the Smithsonian. Well, I went down and the man, her husband was the head of science, David Challenger, and he introduced me to the secretary, Estylan Ripley. I didn't know the secretary was. And I'm not going to get a job. So I'm in jeans. I've got a big Afro. And I sit there because I'm not going to get a job. I'm very comfortable. And we talk for two and a half hours. Then he says, you know, we might want to hire you. And I said, really? I said, I wouldn't mind working at the Museum of History and Technology. And he said to me, we don't have any jobs there. We only have a job at the Air and Space Museum.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For me, when we used to go south, we would go past the museums or say museums in Richmond and Petersburg. And like many kids, I was a Civil War buff. And so I wanted desperately to stop. And he would always find an excuse not to stop. And on the way back, I remember taking out a map and plotting saying, okay, they're 20 miles before we get to Richmond or Petersburg, and I would sort of alert him. But he would always keep going. But then instead of driving straight to New Jersey, he pulled into Washington. And he pulled in front of the Smithsonian and he said, here is a place where you can go learn about yourself in a museum and not worry about the color of your skin. So for me, the Smithsonian was always a place of fairness, that for a 12 or 13 year old kid, this was a place that said to me, here you can be who you want. You can learn all you want and not worry about the color of your skin. So being secretary in a way was my way of thanking an institution that embraced”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Did no place that would let black people stop. And so I remember he was falling asleep and he pulled off and he pulled into a motor court. And he pulled in and my mother, my brother were asleep, and I was watching him and he went out to smoke a cigarette. And I noticed he was standing under a sign that said white only. And I was terrified. I thought something's going to happen. And I was just a wreck. He finally comes back in the car. He recognizes that I'm really worried. And he said to me something I've never forgotten. He said, you know, this is my America too. And it reminded me that no matter what happened, this is part of my country and I want to do whatever I can to make it fairer.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So we would drive from New Jersey to visit my mother's family in North Carolina, and this was in Jim Crow era. So we would load the carp with food and blankets because he knew we couldn't stop. And what he was the only driver in those days.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I didn't want to do something with history. And the story that is an absolutely true story is that my grandfather died the day before I turned five. And he would read to me and he would read books. And one day I was reading a book and had a picture of school children. And it was probably from the 1860s. He said to me that the picture said unidentified children. And then he said something I've never forgotten. And he said, isn't it a shame people could live their lives, die? And all it says is unidentified. And that got me trying to figure out how do I understand what their lies were like. And I began to look at photographs as a little kid and try to imagine what were their jobs, were they happy.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think, first of all, the challenge is that to make sure that the Smithsonian has the stable funding it needs. Because of the pandemic, we've lost millions of dollars. People aren't going to the restaurants and shops, which has an impact on our research and on staff. So really trying to make sure we have the strongest financial model. Because what it really means is we've got to rethink some things. So rather than just reopen our shops, we've got to build more e-commerce. So this is really allowing us to think creatively about what the Smithsonian should be.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the Smithsonian, like many places, has a lot of work to do. I'm very pleased that we've got some diverse leadership. We've got strong, diverse, playful in different parts of the Smithsonian. But I think that the Smithsonian needs to do a better job because if we're going to help the public grapple with these issues, we've got to model it.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I thought it was really important to realize that in some ways the Smithsonian's the glue that holds a nation together and it's the kind of place that can bring people of different political points of view together so when all of the sort of angst and the pains happened as a result of the murder of George Floyd and others I realized the Smithsonian had a role to play that we should be a place that would help the public grapple with the things that have divided us so one of the things we did was we got support from Bank of America and created a program that looks at race, community and our shared future to basically say how do we create town halls an opportunity for people to come together to talk about what has divided us how do we use the resources of the Smithsonian our expertise on African American culture to give people the kind of historical guidance to help them live their lives”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think there is something powerful about the object. And it stimulates conversation so that in essence what we should do at the Smithsonian is find the right tension between tradition and innovation. We have to recognize that the traditional stuff is good and we want people to enjoy it. But now we also recognize that as a result of the pandemic, more people are comfortable receiving content digitally. So it really means that we just need to find the right balance between serving the millions that will never get to a museum and the millions that actually come to the Smithsonian.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, because there were some guards that had to work, I thought I would go into the office, but I realized that if I went into the office, somebody other people would come in. So I ended up working from home and I learned to master Zoom and sort of other technologies I'm still fighting with. But basically work from home every day.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I wanted to be able to figure out how we open the rest of the Smithsonian. The zoo, because it's outdoors. And that was easier, but also this museum because it's large and it also has parking because there were issues of transportation. So basically these were the test case which will then, if the virus then begins to come down to allow us slowly to open the rest of the Smithsonian.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What I realized is that once we shut down the buildings online, we created educational opportunities, portals that would allow people to educators to get our science, our history, our art. We made it so that scholars could continue to do the research. The scientists could do the work they needed to do. But the reality is that we recognize that now as a result of this virus, we've got to rethink so much about the Smithsonian. We've got to rethink about how we telework more effectively. We've got to think about once people come back, what does social distancing mean in a museum? Because as you know, the major thing that happens in a museum is people who don't know each other come together around an artifact like the shuttle. And so are people going to want to come together in a time of pandemic? So we're really thinking about how do we create community even with social distancing.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that no one knew what it was like to lead during a pandemic. But what has happened is as a result of that, I've really learned the wonders of the Smithsonian when it comes together. The Smithsonian is often a conglomerate of museums and research centers, and there doesn't always blend. But because of this pandemic, people have come together, cross lines, brought their creativity, scientists, historians, educators. So for me, I'm really glad because I'm getting to see what the Smithsonian does even in the most difficult of times when it comes together and brings its creativity to bear.”
2020-09-18 · The David Rubenstein Show · Lonnie Bunch · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source