Current exhibitions

Museum update A small area connected to the exhibition African Mosaic: Building a Museum Collection will be closed to the public from May 1 through September 30. All African Art galleries and exhibitions, including African Mosaic: Building a Museum Collection, are open.

For the fourth year, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) is uniting its membership to celebrate Art Museum Day. Held in concert with ICOM's International Museum Day, this year AAMD's Art Museum Day takes place this Saturday, May 18. The theme for 2013 is "museums (memory + creativity) = social change."

NMAfA will be contributing to the Art Museum Day Twitter feed in honor of this years theme. Join us using the hashtag #ArtMuseumDay



Join panelists Diana N'Diaye, Monte Harris, Karen E. Milbourne, and Gina Paige for an engaging and thoughtful conversation about contemporary hair, health, and beauty in relation to the heritage and history of Africa.

June 7, 2013, 6:30 - 9 p.m.
S. Dillon Ripley Center
Lecture Hall, Sublevel 3
1100 Jefferson Drive, SW
Washington, D.C.

For more information and to reserve your free ticket.


Welcome to the blog for Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa! With approximately 100 diverse works of art, as well as, for the first time at the Smithsonian, three works of land art in the Smithsonian's historic Enid A. Haupt Garden, this blog gives you behind-the-scenes access to this remarkable exhibition.

Read the blog


National Museum of African Art curator Karen Milbourne talks to Leah Binkovitz of Smithsonian's "Around the Mall" about the latest exhibition, "Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa" which opened at NMAfA on Monday, April 22.




Globally renowned artists, El Anatsui, Strijdom van der Merwe, Ghada Amer creating earth works for "Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa" exhibition. Earth Works, is the first installation of land art by three artists ever to be assembled outside in the Smithsonian Gardens and on the National Mall. A separate sculpture by Ledelle Moe will be on display outside of the National Museum of African Art. The exhibition opened on "Earth Day" April 22.

See the images ...