2024 | A fireside chat with Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Recorded April 25th, 2024. The Trinity Long Room Hub Annual
Humanities Horizons Lecture for 2024 was delivered by Lonnie G.
Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The Annual
Humanities Horizons Lecture was established in 2013 to provide a
significant contribution to reflection on and advocacy for the Arts
and Humanities. About Lonnie G. 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. Previously, Bunch was the director of the
Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and
Culture. When he started as director in July 2005, he had one staff
member, no collections, no funding and no site for a museum. Driven
by optimism, determination and a commitment to build “a place that
would make America better,” Bunch transformed a vision into a bold
reality. The museum has welcomed more than 8 million visitors since
it opened in September 2016 and has compiled a collection of 40,000
objects that are housed in the first “green building” on the
National Mall. In 2019, the creation of the museum became the first
Smithsonian effort to be the topic of a Harvard Business Review
case study. Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/