YMI Cultural Center Executive Director Resigns

Harry Harrison has resigned as Director of the YMI Cultural Center.

Staff Reports

Harry Harrison, Executive Director of the YMI Cultural Center, resigned his position effective September 29, 2010. During his tenure Harrison conceptualized one of the YMI’s most visited exhibitions. Willie Little’s “Juke Joint” captured life as it was (and sometimes is) in African American rural culture. Another noted YMI exhibit under his auspices was “That’s me,” which featured the lives of Asheville’s African American community before and during the urban renewal process.

Harrison received his MA in Planning and Public Administration from
Pepperdine University, and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Arts
Education from Allen University. He came to the YMI in 2005 after
serving as President and CEO of the African American Museum in
Philadelphia and as Vice President for Education and Public Programming,
and then as Vice President of Museum Operations, at the Charles H.
Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan. 

Before joining the YMI, Harrison served as Interim Executive
Director of the Afro-American Cultural Center in Charlotte, N.C. In 2003
and 2004 he was named one of Philadelphia’s 50 most influential African
Americans.

In a statement YMI chairperson Dan Johnson, chair of the YMICC
board, said, “We accepted Mr. Harrison’s resignation and at a later
date, we will begin our interview process to fill this position after an
intense restructuring.