Regina Bain was a newcomer to the museum world before becoming the executive director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum at the height of the pandemic.
But she was a veteran in the arts and education, fields that, together, reflect the work of preserving the legacy of jazz legend Louis Armstrong and his wife, Lucille, an acclaimed dancer. The Louis Armstrong Center, which opened in 2023 across the street from the Armstrongs’ former home in Corona, has made this link more visible: it provides a permanent home for the Armstrong archives as well as a performance space where K-12 students, musicians and other artists can also take in-person and online music classes.
Through this expansion, new offerings and behind-the-scenes social media posts, Bain is striving to make the Armstrongs’ legacy more accessible. Her efforts have been recognized through accolades such as the award in 2024 of the National Medal for Museums from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the nation’s highest honor for cultural institutions making an impact in their communities.
A family education in the arts
Bain credits family for her early musical education in South Florida. She and her mother attended R&B concerts together in the 1980s and ’90s. The first play they attended — George C. Wolfe’s “The Colored Museum,” a satire of Black American stereotypes — was formative.
“I fell in love with what art was, what storytelling could be, how performance could include music,” Bain said.
Her relatives, in the tradition of many Black families in the South, included recitals by her and other young people in family gatherings. Performing in church plays and reciting poetry at such reunions, including memorizing Langston Hughes, impressed upon her the value of expression.
Bain said those experiences ground her in a sense that “music is important, language is important, dance is important, and it’s something for you to master, and then to give to community, and be in and participate in with community.”
Later, she learned Armstrong also operated at that intersection of performance. Among Bain’s favorites of his include the second version of “St. Louis Blues,” whose character-driven acting resonated with her. And in “‘On the Sunny Side of the Street,’ ” she said, “there’s an optimism there that I think is really critical right now.”
Graduate training at the Yale School of Drama provided the rest of Bain’s performance education. She moved to New York City in 2001, living largely in Brooklyn. She worked as an actor for years before helping students navigate college and leadership opportunities with the nonprofit Posse Foundation.
Stepping into a new kind of leadership
During the pandemic, Bain reflected on her personal mission and what she wanted to co-create with the community. She talked it through with trusted friends and was open to the idea when someone suggested she venture into museum leadership.
Bain started as executive director of the Armstrong Museum in August 2020. During a period when survival in the field required connection, it was an ideal time to reach out to other executive directors and cultural institutions for perspective. The outpouring that came in return smoothed her transition, Bain said. It was good to know, “in that point of turmoil and tumultuousness and personal change, that I wasn’t alone.”
The balance of fundraising
Bain’s primary job, like that of any museum director, involves fundraising, but it’s also about managing staff, infrastructure and programming. Running a three-building campus means dealing with boilers and HVAC systems. It also entails empowering her team to lead. That way, she can focus on securing the funds needed to maintain the facilities and the resources staff need for programming.
While fundraising is challenging, “I don’t want any aspiring leader to feel blocked because they’re not sure if they can raise funds,” she said. “You can — you just have to be dedicated about it.”
That means devoting yourself to both building relationships and the discipline of logistics, Bain says: “It’s being out in the public, it’s getting to know your community, it is being with people, but it’s also a database, and deadlines and research. You have to have both.”
The brand of Bain’s team
Bain’s team at the Louis Armstrong House Museum has “amazing ideas and runs with them,” said Bain, including introducing a trumpet learning program on Saturdays. In February, Mayor Zohran Mamdani saw those trumpet players perform when he came to announce a free admission day at the museum during Black History Month.
Another innovation is a limited-time exhibition called the Corona Collection, the oral history of students in the neighborhood who knew the Armstrongs. She hopes more New Yorkers will learn about them beyond their contributions to jazz. That includes the feat of being two Black artists who owned their own home in the 1940s, she says.
“When you come to the museum,” Bain said, “you feel the work and the passion of the individuals who work here and the stories that they’ve worked to tell.”
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