Amaze Design Selected for Heritage Center

AARCH Society is excited to announce another step forward in the Heritage Center Vision: after reviewing several proposals for exhibit planning and design, the Society’s evaluation team recommended the selection of Amaze Design of Boston, Mass. In July, the AARCH Society Board voted to affirm.

“The Amaze Design team has a proven track record of producing extraordinary presentations that will serve us well,” says AARCH Society President Protean Gibril.  “Their organization includes a talented team, and their proposal provided examples that we feel will create an exciting experience to provoke and “wow” Heritage Center visitors.”

Amaze Design has experience designing for a wide range of audiences nationally and internationally, with a client list that includes the National Park Service’s African Burial Ground in New York City, the August Wilson African American Culture Center in Pittsburgh, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture, the Tubman Museum in Macon, Ga., and the National Children’s Museum in Washington, D.C.

On August 18, Amaze Design’s Scott Rabiet will be in Frederick to see the Heritage Center site and tour the downtown area and Frederick Visitor Center with members of the AARCH Society Board.

The dream of establishing a permanent home for the African American Resources Cultural and Heritage Society (AARCH) is nearing fruition, with the goal of opening The AARCH Society Heritage Center in 2023.

Two decades in the making, it fulfills former Alderman William O. Lee’s vision. The new Heritage Center will be a vibrant place to tell the important and under-represented story of Frederick’s African American community.

The City of Frederick provided a lease for a 3,200-square-foot facility on the corner of Carroll and All Saint’s Streets. Ideally situated near the Frederick Visitor Center, the Delaplaine Arts Center, and the Sky Stage, the AARCH Society Heritage Center adds another prominent destination for heritage tourism.

The Heritage Center will include permanent exhibit space, a multi-purpose area suitable for theater/meeting space, and research and archival facilities. It will showcase local artifacts and feature first-hand accounts of Frederick’s living treasures, local African American residents 90 years old or older.