National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

Name: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution
Address: 950 Independence Avenue SW, Washington D.C., DC, 20560, US
Telephone: +12026334600
Rating: 4.6

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National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

The only national museum in the U.S. dedicated to the collection, exhibition, conservation and study of the arts of Africa. Open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
(318)

daily, except Dec. 25 and Jan. 20, 2025. Admission is always FREE. Any data that users post on this site or that the Smithsonian collects from this site is subject to our terms of use and privacy policies which can be found at: www.si.edu/termsofuse/ and www.si.edu/privacy/. The Smithsonian may archive materials posted on this website pursuant to its document retention policies. By posting content

, you are giving the Smithsonian and those authorized by the Smithsonian permission to use or modify it for any educational, promotional, or other standard museum purpose, in media of all kinds whether now known or later developed.

05/30/2025

On June 21, the Smithsonian will mark the first Saturday of summer by staying open late!

Join the National Museum of African Art for programs from 4 p.m.–12 a.m., including family-friendly options in the early evening and late-night activities for the adult crowd.

The schedule includes DJ and VJ sets and a panel discussion featuring live arts performers. The event will be enriched by the vibrant rhythms of Burundi’s royal drums and the captivating elegance of traditional dance.

Get the details here: si.edu/solsticesaturday

🎥 Solstice Saturday 2024, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Footage by Devin B. Visuals, 2024/Edited by NMAfA, 2025

05/29/2025

The Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at the National Museum of African Art is undergoing a major renovation. Starting June 2 and through the summer, the archives will be temporarily closed for onsite research as we enhance our capacity to preserve, process, and share the visual history of African arts and cultures.

While the physical archives won’t be available, researchers can continue exploring our finding aids and digitized content on the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives. We will continue providing assistance with digitized/digital materials during this time, so please contact [email protected] with any questions or requests.

This renovation marks a significant step forward in ensuring long-term care and access to NMAfA’s archival collection of 500,000+ items, including rare glass plate negatives, lantern slides, stereographs, postcards, maps, and engravings.

The improvements will:
· Increase collection storage capacity
· Expand the processing space
· Create a dedicated space for onsite research and community engagement

Stay tuned for updates!

📸 The Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

05/27/2025

Pictured here is the restoration and preservation of the 17th century Fasil Ghebbi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Gondar, Ethiopia.

The person behind this project—architect, author, and professor Fasil Giorghis—will be at our museum on Saturday, June 7!

A scholar of the preservation of Ethiopia’s architectural heritage, Giorghis has contributed articles on sustainable architecture and preserving cultural heritage. His architectural work combines local materials, indigenous knowledge, and environmental concerns in contemporary design.

Join us on June 7 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. to hear Giorghis in conversation with National Museum of African Art Deputy Director Heran Sereke-Brhan.

Learn more and register here:
https://africa.si.edu/event/author-talk-architecture-and-preservation-of-historical-sites-in-ethiopia/

📷 Fasil Ghebbi restoration and preservation project, Courtesy of Fasil Giorghis

05/12/2025

Capturing your in 1940s Nigeria meant sitting for a portrait by Solomon Osagie Alonge in his Ideal Photo Studio, where he provided a creative space for unique expressions of culture, ethnicity, and style through his subjects’ choice of textiles, fashion, poses, and with whom they chose to be photographed.

Alonge opened the Ideal Photo Studio in 1942; it was the first commercial photographic studio in Benin City.

“Before Nollywood . . . The Ideal Photo Studio” is a living exhibition and an ongoing research and photography project that features work by Alonge that illuminates an untold history of Nigerian photographers and African studio portraiture.

Largely unknown today, early Nigerian studio photographers struggled like their successors in Nollywood (a term coined by New York Times journalist Norimitsu Onishi that refers to Nigeria’s prolific film industry). Yet with minimal equipment and finances, they made significant contributions to the history of African photography and portraiture and to representing Africa’s changing communities.

Follow this link to dive deeper into the exhibition: https://africa.si.edu/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/before-nollywood-the-ideal-photo-studio/before-nollywood-eng/

📸 All images were photographed by Solomon Osagie Alonge (1911–1994) in Benin City, Nigeria, unless noted otherwise and are silver gelatin modern prints from the original glass plate negatives in the Chief S.O. Alonge Collection, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives.

1. Young Chief Ajayi Okao visiting the Ideal Studio with Volkswagen Beetle, c. 1960, EEPA_2009-007-1208

2. Chief Gauis Obaseki, Iyase of Benin, c. 1940, EEPA_2009-007-0090

3, 4. “Before Nollywood…The Ideal Photo Studio,” Photos by National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2025

04/18/2025

Multidisciplinary artist and musician Neta Elkayam has gained recognition worldwide as a performer of North African music. She’ll take the stage at the National Museum of African Art as part of the Mimouna festival, which runs from 12:30–4:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 27.

Enjoy food, music, dance, and more at the museum for Mimouna, a celebration that marks the end of Passover and the advent of spring, and is based on Moroccan narratives of unity, commemoration, goodwill, and friendship.

Learn more about Mimouna and register on our website: https://africa.si.edu/event/mimouna-2025/

Presented by Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art with Sephardic Heritage International DC (SHIN DC), which founded the festival more than a decade ago.

Supported by a generous grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

📸 Neta Elkayam, Photo by Estwanat Hai

04/16/2025

Grab a pencil and join us for the last two installments of Black Out Poetry: From African Prose to Poetry on Saturdays, April 19 and 26, 1–4 p.m.

Celebrate National Poetry Month by drawing inspiration from our exhibitions as well as themes from African mythologies, folklore, and historical narratives. Design your poem using the works of African prose by “blacking out” sections of existing texts to create a poem from the remaining words.

Learn more on our website: https://africa.si.edu/event/black-out-poetry-from-african-prose-to-poetry-3/

📸 Photo courtesy of National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2025

04/15/2025

Our exhibition “Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross” is now on view, coinciding with a time when many around the world commemorate the Stations of the Cross leading up to Easter Sunday.

Celebrated Nigerian sculptor and printmaker Bruce Onobrakpeya began creating works depicting Christian iconography in 1966, when Catholic priests asked the artist to interpret The Passion of Christ. Following the success of the resulting body of work, titled “Fourteen Stations of the Cross,” Onobrakpeya continued to produce relief, print, and mural commissions for Catholic parishes until 1978.

Originally presented by the High Museum of Art (Atlanta, GA), “Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross” showcases the earliest of these commissions.

The exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, in collaboration with the National Museum of African Art.

Plan your visit!

1, 2. Station VI: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus (detail), 1969, Bruce Onobrakpeya, b. 1932, Nigeria, linoleum block print on rice paper, gift of Mr. George A. Naifeh, collection of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

3. "Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross," National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2024, Photo by Brad Simpson

4. "Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross," National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2025, Photo by Devin B. Visuals

04/09/2025

You’ve been following along all week (right?), and is still going strong. But here’s a plot twist: did you know our 21 libraries are INSIDE the Smithsonian museums?

You know what’s better than a museum full of incredible art? A library inside that museum, packed with knowledge to take your curiosity even further.

Take the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution Library, for example. It's not just a cozy reading spot—it’s where history, culture, and scholarship collide. Oh, and no big deal, but some of the books on these shelves? Written by our very own past directors and colleagues. That’s right, we don’t just collect knowledge—we create it.

And guess what? This library is now open five days a week! (By appointment only, of course—because exclusivity just makes it cooler.) Want to see rare books up close? Do some deep research? Get your own behind-the-scenes library experience? Book your visit and make it happen.

03/31/2025

Spring is here! 🌷 Enjoy these photos of the magnolias around our museum over the past few days in the Enid A. Haupt Garden. 🌸

03/12/2025

In 1983, Sylvia H. Williams made history as the first African American director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, overseeing its relocation and expansion at a time when few women were in directorship positions at American museums.

What was originally known as the Museum of African Art became part of the Smithsonian following an act of Congress in 1979; it was officially renamed the National Museum of African Art in 1981. Six years later, under the leadership of Williams, the museum was relocated to its current facility at 950 Independence Ave. S.W. to make African art accessible to a new and larger audience.

Williams’s focus on contemporary African art and her emphasis on connoisseurship led to significant acquisitions and groundbreaking exhibitions at the National Museum of African Art. The museum’s Sylvia H. Williams Gallery honors her enduring contributions to the field.

Williams was a pioneering figure in the art world, serving as museum director, curator, and scholar of African art. Born in Lincoln, Pennsylvania, she began her career at institutions like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the African American Institute in Lagos, Nigeria.

Visit our museum to see how we’re continuing to honor her legacy on the National Mall.

📸 National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

03/07/2025

The exhibition “Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross”—now on view for an extended time at the National Museum of African Art—features works from the Nigerian artist Bruce Onobrakpeya’s personal collection, including a selection of artist proofs for a book’s illustrations.

“May Your Kingdom Come” was a Yoruba language Catholic Church textbook for students in their fifth and sixth years of primary school. Tasked with creating simple imagery that could be easily interpreted, Onobrakpeya produced sixty black-and-white illustrations using Nigerian cultural and aesthetic contexts to communicate Christian ethos and portray the lives of Jesus and disciples Peter and Paul.

“Christ means something, and my art tries to bring out what Christ means to our people in a way they can understand,” said Onobrakpeya.

Plan your visit for the rare opportunity to see these prints in person.

The exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta in collaboration with the National Museum of African Art.

1. Bruce Onobrakpeya (Nigerian, born 1932), Jesus in the garden of Gethsemani, 1968, linoleum print, Collection of Bruce Onobrakpeya. © Bruce Onobrakpeya.

2, 3. Gallery views of “Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask & the Cross,” National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Photography by Devin B. Visuals

03/03/2025

We’re pleased to partner with Alliance Française de Washington DC to offer FREE guided tours in French 1 p.m.–2:30 p.m. every Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday in March as part of the monthlong DC 2025 Francophonie Festival.

The tours will include highlights of the National Museum of African Art’s current exhibitions, with special attention to artists from Francophone Africa, resulting in a diverse group of works and historical time periods.

Registration is required; reserve your spot here: https://africa.si.edu/guided-tours-in-french-part-of-dc-2025-francophonie-festival/

Photo courtesy of National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2024

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+12026334600

Website

https://africa.si.edu/

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