Los Angeles Times
While plans proceed for a facility in Miami, the founders are seeking funds and artifacts to expand the collection.
MIAMI — The Haitian Heritage Museum is, for now, boxed in antioxidant cardboard in a climate-controlled storage locker.
It includes 20 vibrant paintings and pieces of hand-carved folk art that will one day hang in a 25,000-square-foot building scheduled to break ground in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood later this year.
Eveline Pierre and Serge Rodrigue, the museum’s founders and only full-time staff, hope to build a permanent collection of about 1,000 items chronicling the Haitian diaspora, especially in the United States, and the traditions they brought to their new homes.
The two are of Haitian descent, having lived most of their lives in southern Florida. Pierre is in arts and entertainment management and Rodrigue is in construction management. They worked together in 2003 on plans to commemorate Haiti’s Bicentennial in the Miami area the following year, and both felt something was missing from the celebration.