Italian American Museum of New York founder Joseph Scelsa

Scelsa (with scissors) at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Italian American Museum of New York

A former college professor and administrator, Joseph Scelsa spearheaded the creation of the Italian American Museum in New York to bring our community’s countless stories vividly to life for the general public.

The Italian American Museum in New York reopened in October after a massive, six-year transformation and expansion.

The unveiling was the culmination of 23 years of work by Joseph Scelsa, the museum’s founder and president, whose vision and tenacity made it all possible.

With a doctorate in sociology and education from Columbia University, Scelsa’s resume also includes serving as dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute and president for Outreach and Cultural Affairs at Queens College, both at The City University of New York.

Scelsa, who lives in Westchester, New York, talks to Fra Noi about what visitors can expect to see at the museum, and what it all means to him.

ELENA FERRARIN: Tell us about your Italian heritage and growing up in the Bronx, New York.

JOSEPH SCELSA: My grandparents were born in Italy. My mother’s father came from Calabria and my father’s family was from Sicily. They settled in Little Italy in 1895 and 1900. Growing up, I was surrounded by family. We all lived within a few doors of each other; we were a very tight-knit family. The adults spoke Italian when they didn’t want me to understand. My grandma was an unbelievable cook and made fresh pasta every week. My grandpa was a barber who once was called to shave Enrico Caruso.

EF: You founded the Italian American Museum. How did that come about?

JS: When I was dean, the Calandra Institute curated the exhibit “The Italians of New York: Five Centuries of Struggle and Achievement” that was hosted at the New York Historical Society. People loved it: An estimated 40,000 came in less than three months. That opened my eyes that there were other ways to educate people, besides in the classroom, about who we are as Italian Americans. In 2001, the museum was chartered in New York. We had an agreement with CUNY to do exhibits through the Calandra Institute space. The museum didn’t have a home until 2008, when we purchased the property on Mulberry Street (in New York’s Little Italy).

EF: How did you fund the purchase?

JS: To do the exhibit at the New York Historical Society, I raised $250,000 with donors and a gala at The Plaza Hotel. Once I realized that was something I could raise money for, I went ahead with the idea of the museum. Between myself and four other individuals, we loaned the museum about $2.5 million to open on Mulberry Street. The loan was repaid around 2016.

EF: Are there any exhibits that you’ve been especially proud of?

JS: “Prisoners in Their Own Home,” the story of Italian Americans as enemy aliens in World War II. On Dec. 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor happened, if you were an Italian living in the United States and not a citizen, you were considered an enemy alien. A lot of these people were older people who had not bothered to become citizens, and their sons were fighting for the U.S. Armed Forces in Italy, Europe and the Pacific. They had to carry an identity card that had to be shown on demand, and register every month at the U.S. Post Office. And there was internment of thousands of Italians during World War II, both on the East Coast and West Coast. This was a story that needed to be told.

EF: The museum is now six times larger, with additions such as a 50-seat auditorium and a gift shop. How did you fund that?

JS: We partnered with the developer, who built out the top of the building as residential condos. They left a part for us, with two floors above and two floors below ground. We went from 1,800 square feet to 7,000 square feet. We raised about $5 million through state grants, federal grants and private donors.

EF: What is the interior like?

JS: My son Jonathan Scelsa’s firm, op.AL, based in New York City, did the interior design, which won an award from The Architect’s Newspaper. I have shown the museum to a number of dignitaries, including the president of the Museo Nazionale dell’Emigrazione Italiana in Genova, who compared it to the Guggenheim Museum. There are a lot of curves and not a lot of straight lines. It’s beautiful.

EF: What are your current exhibits?

JS: “Sicilian Theatre in Little Italy: The Return of the Manteo Puppets” is a remarkable exhibit. (Agrippino) Pino Manteo was an immigrant in the early 20th century who first went to Argentina and then came to New York. By day he was an electrician, and in the evening, he made his puppets in his workshop. He also brought some from Sicily and Argentina. There are 34 puppets, all in the style of Catania, 4- to 5-feet high. His son had them in his garage and donated them to the museum. It’s the first time they are all on display because we didn’t have space before the renovation.

EF: What can visitors expect to see in the museum’s permanent collection?

The museum’s interior

JS: The permanent collection should be ready for the public by late spring or early summer. There will be over 3,000 pieces, but I don’t have an exact count because we are constantly getting donations! We show the story of the Italians in America. From Giovanni da Verrazzano coming into the New York harbor 500 years ago, to Pietro Cesare Alberti, who in 1632 was the first Italian to come to New York, and Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the first director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Then the mass immigration from 1870 to 1920, and the next large wave from 1945 to 1965. We document all of that, in a sequential way, so people understand that Italians have been here since the very beginning of the establishment of this country. Some of our fundamental laws can be attributed to Italian thought: Cesara Beccaria is responsible for the thought behind the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and Filippo Mazzei gave the words “all men are created equal” to Thomas Jefferson. Today, you have numerous people, pop stars like Lady Gaga and politicians like the Cuomos and many more, that have made their mark. We are still continuing to have a vital influence on society.

EF: On a personal level, what has the museum meant to you?

JS: It is the fulfillment of my contribution of telling our story, ourselves. Our story has not been told in its entirety, and it’s certainly not taught in school or university. This museum is not about Italy — it’s about the people who came from Italy, and the people who made all the contributions to this country. We are not what Hollywood portrays. More than 99% of Italians have not been involved in organized crime, and there are important facts about us that are not recognized by society. Every group needs to be recognized and respected for who they are — not for who people think they are.

EF: Any parting words?

JS: When I was a graduate student at CUNY, somebody said to me, “If you want to do it, just do it.” A long time ago I decided that if you’re going to wait to get resources from other people, you may be waiting forever. I am not bragging. I am saying, that’s why it happened.

About Elena Ferrarin

Elena Ferrarin is a native of Rome who has worked as a journalist in the United States since 2002. She has been a correspondent for Fra Noi for more than a decade. She previously worked as a reporter for The Daily Herald in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, The Regional News in Palos Heights and as a reporter/assistant editor for Reflejos, a Spanish-English newspaper in Arlington Heights. She has a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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