The co-founders created AAMRI because they recognized something vital: young people’s needs are met when we root them in the histories of their own communities, help them build workforce-ready skills, and give them a platform to find and document their voices. This is a different museum model. We recognize the vast collections of material culture, community memory, and organic historians already living in Rhode Island’s Black neighborhoods, and we understand the role narrative can play in shaping young lives. Picture this: Billy Taylor used to share his stories at a particular Providence spot. A young person researches that history, builds an archive documenting it, and now their work sits as a visual exhibition in the African American Museum of Rhode Island. That young person sees themselves in history, they are seen differently by their community, and they act with confidence through the world.

History doesn’t happen to us. We make it, we shape it, and at AAMRI, we pass it forward.