NATIONAL SPEAKER SERIES
FROM THE GROUND UP
Bringing leaders who have built some of the world’s most significant cultural institutions to Milwaukee for candid conversations about vision, resilience, and legacy.
Presented by the Bronzeville Center for the Arts in collaboration with the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Chipstone Foundation, From the Ground Up is a flagship, recurring platform connecting BCA’s own journey to the broader story of what it takes to build lasting cultural institutions.
Each installment features a leader who navigated questions of race, identity, and power to build something sustainable and nationally significant — the same road BCA is on today.
[ SERIES KICKOFF ]
LONNIE G. BUNCH III
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution — in conversation with Ra Joy, Executive Director, BCA
Join us for a rare opportunity to hear Lonnie G. Bunch III, the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, reflect on the challenges of building a museum widely considered a national masterpiece and stewarding the Smithsonian Institution. The evening includes a discussion of his book, A Fool’s Errand.
Seating is limited
ABOUT SECRETARY BUNCH
Lonnie G. Bunch III is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian. He assumed his position June 16, 2019. As Secretary, he oversees 21 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers, and several education units and centers. Two new museums—the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum—are in development. Bunch was the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Bunch chronicled the creation of the museum in his book, A Fool’s Errand: Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama and Trump, and is the first historian to be Secretary of the Institution. Since 2024, Bunch has been Honorary Professor of Practice at Queen’s University Belfast. A member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Bunch received France’s highest award, The Legion of Honor, in 2021. In 2025, Bunch was named Humanitarian of the Year by Ebony Power 100.