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Welcome To The VIP

You Have Reached The VIP Section!

We would like to welcome everyone who is interested in supporting the Museum Of UnCut Funk to our VIP section. Here is where you will learn everything that you need to know about the Museum, it’s founders, our mission, our vision and our initiatives.

The Museum Of UnCut Funk has formed a non-profit company, FunkEntelechy, Inc., to allow us to fund raise to support our educational and cultural initiatives and our goal to build a physical museum.

FunkEntelechy, Inc. is incorporated in the State of New Jersey. We have applied for 501(c)(3) status and our application is currently pending. In anticipation of approval, we are able to begin accepting donations.

FunkEntelchy = Realizing one’s potential funkiness. The actualization of the FUNK, rather than it’s potential. Creating a non-profit has been a long time coming, but we have finally done it and we are ready to get to work!

 

 

 

What Is The Museum Of UnCut Funk?

Black Female Owned And Operated

Virtual museum that celebrates and pays homage 1970's Black Culture and History.

 

Launched website in 2009 featuring a unique collection of 1970’s Black culture artifacts: Animation Art and Collectibles, Broadway Window Cards, Coins, Comic Books, Movie Posters, Stamps, Sports and Vintage Advertising Art items that feature Black images.

 

Collection is historically significant as majority of artifacts represent cultural firsts.

 

Our online and social media audiences are nostalgic Black baby boomers (55+) and multicultural adults (30+).

Museum Of UnCut Funk

Museum, collection and exhibitions have received positive press coverage


+  TV: BET, NY-1, PBS – One On One With Steve Adubato, WNBC-NY, WABC-Chicago


+  Magazines: Essence, Inside New Jersey, Intelligent Collector, More, Savoy, Upscale, Vice Sports


+  Newspapers: The New York Times (2X), USA Today


+  Online: Coin Week, Complex, Ebony, Fast Company Design, NPR, 
The Guardian, The Source, US Of America

Museum Of Unut Funk

“Radical Archivists Preserving 1970's Black Material Culture”

 

John Jennings

“Transcendent Curators”

The fact that we can go see in person an exhibition curated by a virtual museum could signal a new trend in curation.

 

The lines between what exists in person for the limited few who are able to travel and what can be viewed virtually for anyone in the world with an internet connection will become increasingly blurred.

 

People will demand more accessible content online from our nation’s museums and archives while the value of visiting the tangible object becomes a treasured rarity.

 

It is impressive what the Museum Of UnCut Funk has been able to achieve...

Art Insights Magazine.com

"AfroFuturisticEducators"

"We want to educate the world about 1970’s Black History and Culture, unique aspects of Black history."

 

"We are focused on educating people about unknown aspects of Black history so we can all gain a better understanding of who we are as Black people by understanding who we have been, and where and from whom we have come."

ReenieDaFunkBaby

Meet The Founders

Pamela Thomas, aka SistaToFunky, is an avid collector of Black memorabilia and an expert on Black culture of the 1970’s.

Over the past 20 years, Pamela has pursued her passion for Black history by building an extensive collection
 of Black culture artifacts, which includes: Animation Art, Broadway Window Cards, Coins, Comic Books, Movie Posters and Stamps that incorporate Black images. Pamela has appeared on BET Tonight with Ed Gordon, and her collection has been featured in Essence, King, More, Savoy and Upscale Magazines, The New York Times and extensively profiled by Collector’s Quest.

Prior to creating the museum, Pamela was an educator, an adjunct professor and an art gallery owner.

Pamela attended the City College of New York, where she earned her undergraduate degree, majoring in Black History.

Loreen Dyanne, aka ReenieDaFunkBaby or Red Funk Baby, is also an avid collector of Black memorabilia and an expert on Black culture of the 1970’s.

She brings over 35 years of marketing, media and  advertising expertise to managing the Museum Of UnCut Funk, its collection and exhibitions.

Loreen curated the museum’s highly successful traveling exhibitions, which have been seen by over 322,459 people to date. The museum and its exhibitions have been covered twice by The New York Times as well as USA Today, NPR, The Guardian, Essence Magazine, Ebony Magazine, Intelligent Collector Magazine, NY-1, Positively Black and Here And Now.

Loreen holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the Wharton School Of Business, University Of Pennsylvania, where she majored in marketing and economics.

Mission And Vision

We have our sights set on Newark, NJ for our permanent home. We are seeking 50,000 to 100,000 square feet of space in Newark to build our museum.

A Newark + Museum Of UnCut Funk Collaboration can achieve:
• A unique, fun, interactive, multi-dimensional U.S. and International tourist destination
• First and only 1970’s Black culture experience
• First major Black culture experience in N.J.
• Help fuel arts as economic engine
• Create unique jobs in Newark
• Support BUY, LIVE, HIRE initiative

Museum Of UnCut Funk will honor Newark / N.J. Black culture, history:
• Newark as birthplace and home of several 1970’s Black Culture Icons
• Newark Black Arts Movement heritage
• Newark / N.J. as “Birthplace of Funk”

FUN FACTS
• Curator was born in Newark
• Curators will live in Newark and become part of the community, cultural ambassadors for city
• Award winning architecture firm and creative agency are on board

3D Exhibitions

Traveling Exhibitions

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Hit Me With Those Funky Numbers!

We are very proud that we have surpassed a quarter of a million people who have seen one of our funky Black history traveling exhibitions to date in museums and cultural institutions across the country!!!

Our exhibition audiences are multicultural and intergenerational, including K-12 students, teachers, parents and grandparents

We are looking forward to running up these totals post-COVID.

Our PHENOMENALLY successful Funky Turns 40: Black Character Revolution Traveling Animation Art exhibition is now Funky Turns 50!!!

Same awesome exhibition, but the cartoons are now celebrating their 50th anniversaries!

Funky Turns 50: Black Character Revolution is our retrospective of 1970′s Saturday Morning Animation Art featuring Black Characters. The art featured in this exhibition represents many historical firsts, as the 1970’s was the first time that positive Black cartoon characters were shown on television.

Funky Turns 40: Black Character Revolution was featured in the New York Times in an article titled “Hey, Hey, Hey! Animated Touchstones”.

The article appeared on the front page of the March 20, 2014 Arts section. Can you dig it!

The online version of the article titled “Hey, Hey, Hey! Animated Touchstones. ‘Funky Turns 40’ Recalls a Seminal Moment for Black Characters” was posted on the New York Times website on March 19, 2014.

You can see all of the great press that we have received by clicking here.

118,720 people have seen the Funky Turns 50: Black Character Revolution Exhibition.

Exhibition tour schedule:

Our Funky Turns 40: Black Character Revolution Firsts Traveling Panel Exhibition is now Funky Turns 50!!!

Same awesome exhibition, but the cartoons are now celebrating their 50th anniversaries!

Our Funky Turns 50: Black Character Revolution Firsts Exhibition, a panel version of our PHENOMENALLY SUCCESSFUL Funky Turns 50: Black Character Revolution Traveling Exhibition, has been seen by 33,851 people to date!!!

The Funky Turns 50: Black Character Revolution Firsts Exhibition presents historical information and captures key animation art images from the traveling exhibition.

The Funky Turns 50: Black Character Revolution Firsts Exhibition focuses on the timeline of key animation character first appearances and the historic significance of these appearances during the late 1960’s / 1970’s.

Exhibition tour schedule:

Our For The Love Of Money: Blacks On U.S. Currency Traveling Exhibition has been seen by 59,226 people to date!

For The Love Of Money: Blacks On U.S. Currency was recently featured in the New York Times in an article titled “A Museum Finds All Kinds Of Funk.”

The article appeared on the front page of the August 13, 2017 Metro Section.

The online version of the article titled “Money Museum Gets Funky” was posted on the New York Times website on August 9, 2017.

That makes us 2 for 2 in exhibition coverage on New York Times front pages!!!

For The Love Of Money celebrates Black history icons, seminal historic events and institutions whose significant contributions to American and Black history have been recognized by law through commemoration on United States currency in the form of commemorative coins, medals and medallions.

To be featured on currency is one of the nation’s highest honors. Positive representation of free Black people on commemorative currency is one of earliest and only forms of public recognition of Black excellence, contribution and value. Enshrined in law, commemorative currency represents indelible milestones in the centuries-long struggle of Black people to achieve equality and justice. In a time when some want to diminish, re-write and erase key aspects of Black history, commemorative legislation and currency are invaluable artifacts that help to accurately document the Black experience in the United States.

For The Love Of Money delivers a unique and engaging Black history experience through the presentation of 45 anti-slavery tokens, commemorative coins, concept coins, bronze medals, Presidential bronze medals and gold medallions from the Museum Of UnCut Funk Collection that showcase 37 Black history icons, 13 seminal events and 6 iconic institutions.

For The Love Of Money provides an extensive Black history timeline spanning from the arrival of Africans at Jamestown, Virginia and participation of Black Patriots in the Revolutionary War to over a century of Black historical achievement, from Post-Reconstruction, to the Civil Rights Era, to the election and re-election of the first Black President of the United States.

For The Love Of Money honors barrier breaking Black athletes, entertainers, civil rights leaders and politicians.

For The Love Of Money also features the historic contributions of several prominent Black Women, including Marian Anderson, Bessie Coleman, Dr. Dorothy Height, Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks.

For The Love Of Money highlights Black Military Leaders, Icons and Institutions, including prominent Black history icons who served in the military and seminal Civil Rights events that were facilitated by military protection.

For The Love Of Money is culturally and historically relevant to the Black community, but also has broad appeal as the exhibition educates about the Legislative and U.S. Mint processes for producing commemorative currency. This exhibition is appropriate for adults, families with children, school trips, college students and cuts across ethnic, gender and generational lines. This exhibition will tour to museums, libraries, schools, colleges and universities and other cultural institutions.

For The Love Of Money will continue to gain cultural relevance and popularity due to addition of the first free Black people on circulating U.S. paper currency (TBD):

  • Harriet Tubman on the front of the new $20.00 bill
  • Sojourner Truth on the back of the new $10.00 bill
  • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Marian Anderson on the back of the new $5.00 bill

 

Exhibition tour schedule:

Vintage Black Heroes Logo With 4 Characters

Our Vintage Black Heroes Traveling Exhibition features four Vintage Black comic strips the Museum Of UnCut Funk has acquired exclusive licensing rights to, which were published by the Smith-Mann Syndicate during the 1950’s: Guy Fortune, Mark Hunt, Neil Knight and The Chisholm Kid.

These characters were the first Black heroes to ever appear in a comic strip. They were featured in a first time ever color comic newspaper insert featuring Black comic strips in the Pittsburgh Courier, the only Black newspaper to carry the insert, from 1950 through 1954.

As the original art and newspapers were not preserved, very few copies of these comics, if any at all, currently exist. We believe we have access to the largest collection of, and for some of these comics, the only color copies that remain. These comics have not been seen since the 1950’s.

The Museum Of UnCut Funk has curated an exhibition featuring these Vintage Black comic strips to commemorate the 70th anniversary of their introduction.

109,834 people have seen one of our Vintage Black Heroes exhibitions.

Exhibition tour schedule:

Vintage Black Heroines Logo With 3 Characters copy copy

Our Vintage Black Heroines Traveling Exhibition features two Vintage Black comic strips the Museum Of UnCut Funk has acquired exclusive access to, which were published by the Smith-Mann Syndicate during the 1950’s: Torchy In Heartbeats and Torchy Togs.

The Torchy Brown character was the first positive Black female character to ever appear in her own syndicated comic strip. Torchy In Heartbeats and Torchy Togs were featured in a first time ever color comic newspaper insert featuring Black comic strips in the Pittsburgh Courier, the only Black newspaper to carry the insert, from 1950 through 1954.

As the original art and newspapers were not preserved, very few copies of these comics, if any at all, currently exist. We believe we have access to the largest collection of, and for some of these comics, the only color copies that remain. These comics have not been seen since the 1950’s.

The Museum Of UnCut Funk has curated an exhibition featuring these Vintage Black comic strips to commemorate the 70th anniversary of their introduction.

The Museum Of UnCut Funk has also acquired exclusive rights to exhibit the Friday Foster comic strip published by the Chicago Tribune from 1970 to 1974.

Friday Foster® was the first positive Black female character to ever appear in her own syndicated comic strip in a non-Black publication, the second in a syndicated comic strip.

The Vintage Black Heroines Exhibition features Friday Foster comic strips and commemorates the 45th anniversary of the strip’s introduction.

The Vintage Black Heroines Exhibition also features The Butterfly, the first Black female superheroine to appear in a comic book – 1971 Hell Rider #1 and #2, commemorating the 44th anniversary of the comic book introduction.

ObamaCon Logo 1

WizardMagazineNo210April2009W

ObamaCon: The Making Of A New Black Superhero Exhibition, is our tribute to our first Black President, President Barack Obama.

ObamaCon includes images of original comic books, graphic novels and comic industry magazines from our collection that feature President Obama on the cover.

Because he was soooooo damn calm, cool and collected like that, and actually did rescue the country from impending doom and disaster, he became our SuperBad, SuperBlack, Superhero. So we decided to collect artifacts from his Presidency that depicted him exactly like that, our calm, cool, collected and newest Black Superhero. We pay homage to our President by curating our very cool collection of comic books, graphic novels and comic industry magazines that feature President Barack Obama on the cover into a traveling exhibition.

828 people have seen the exhibition to date.

Exhibition tour schedule:

Google-Cultural-Institute

Online Exhibitions

Museum Of UnCut Funk Collection

Ode To Blaxploitation

Funky Blogs

Links

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