Get acquainted with the museum’s collection with the online object database.
Questions? Contact us at StokesD@si.edu or 202.633.4632.
Art Carts
Variable schedule
Visit the museum’s art carts! Stationed in the museum’s pavilion and throughout its galleries, carts are staffed by trained museum docents or educators and provide hands-on experiences with objects and more.
Art Carts made possible by a grant from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee.
Curricular Connections
By appointment
Please contact StokesD@si.edu or 202.633.4632.
Learn how to include African art in your curriculum through consultations with museum staff about themes, STEM-to-STEAM methods, and strategies for museum and school partnerships. Activities developed in collaboration to align with local SOL and CCSS.
See our Online resources for more in-classroom ideas.
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Discovery Room
Open regular museum hours
Visit our Discovery Room anytime for self-guided, hands-on activities!
Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives
Tuesday–Thursday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. by appointment
Contact 202.633.4690 or ElisofonArchives@si.edu
The museum’s houses the largest public archives devoted exclusively to visual materials on Africa. This unique collection of photographs and other visual material can be researched through the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS). Digital access and requests for reproductions provides educators an opportunity to enhance object-centered learning with cultural context, a vital resource tool to supplement educational programming and tours when facilitating dialogue and meaning-making with the museum’s many diverse audiences.
Click here for more information and to request permissions to reproduce images.
Museum Store
Open regular museum hours
Contact 202.633.0030
Our museum store has award-winning children’s books, musical instruments, and other teaching aides to enhance learning in your classroom.
School Tours
Guided School Tours
Monday–Friday at 10:20 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 1:20 p.m., or 2:45 p.m.
1 hour
Kindergarten–high school
Please submit your request at least 3 weeks in advance using the online form.
Trained docents lead tours of the museum’s exhibitions and permanent collection designed to complement and enhance classroom learning through close looking and open-ended discussions. Docents encourage asking questions and sharing discoveries, helping students to develop individual understanding while valuing all voices to create memorable and meaningful experiences.
Thematic tours are available to suit the needs of specific grades and ages and that focus on current exhibitions. For a complete list of exhibitions upcoming and on view, visit africa.si.edu/exhibitions.
Jambo!
1 hour
Maximum 40 participants per docent
Discover the National Museum of African Art with us! Bring your students to tour one of our exciting exhibitions and learn about the museum’s unique architecture—the museum is 96% underground! Examine objects and ideas through a variety of age-appropriate activities. Our guides use imaginative strategies to help students learn focused looking and tailor tours to the needs of specific themes, grades, and ages. Touchable objects available upon request.
Imagine Form and Function
1 hour
Maximum 40 participants per docent
Learn about design and the form and function of objects in the permanent collection by exploring the exhibition African Mosaic and drawing in the gallery with your students. Drawing materials available upon request.
Self-guided School Tours
Kindergarten–high school
Please preregister your group at 3 weeks in advance using the online form here.
Lead your students on their own exploration of our galleries! Free downloadable teaching materials to help you plan and implement your self-guided visits can be found here.
One adult chaperone (over 21 years old) must accompany every 15 high school students and every 10 elementary through middle school students. Failure to provide sufficient chaperones or to maintain order may result in the group being asked to leave the museum.
Admission to the museum is free and groups are welcome in any of our open galleries, but we request that all self-guided groups make an advance registration to give museum staff and security notice of large visiting groups. Book your visit today.
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Studio Art Workshops
Monday–Friday by appointment
1–2 hours
Elementary–high school
Please submit your request at least 3 weeks in advance to StokesD@si.edu or 202.633.4600.
Inspired by the museum’s permanent collection, exhibitions, and diverse African art traditions, students learn new skills and engage with a variety of materials and techniques. Workshops are developed to incorporate art into STEM learning—turn STEM into STEAM! Topics offered include pottery, textile-making methods and design, book art fundamentals, beadwork, masks and their meanings, and dolls of South Africa. Recycled materials play a significant role in the studio. All materials supplied.
The Big Draw
Monday–Friday by appointment
1–1 1/2 hour
Middle–high school
Please submit your request at least 3 weeks in advance to StokesD@si.edu or 202.633.4600
In this workshop developed specifically for older students, students engage directly with original works in the museum’s galleries through focused looking. Then, sketching those works allows exploration of art and design elements. Led by teaching artists and educators, groups are encouraged to experiment with individual drawing styles and methods. Group reflection brings student voices into a process of collaboration and critical thinking. All materials supplied.
Student Gallery
This gallery displays student artworks (K–12) created in the classroom or the museum in response to virtual field trips, gallery visits, and in-class docent visits—or simply inspired by African art!
Click on a school or workshop to view student masterpieces.
The Big Draw, National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C., summer 2016
This 2016 summer, budding artists joined us every third Wednesday to beat the heat and engage with art! After with a brief introduction to African art and a few drawing fundamentals, we set up our drawing boards in the African Mosaic exhibition to get inspired by original works of art and to sketch our own masterpieces.
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Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, Rockville, MD, Mrs. Bergel’s 2nd Grade Art Class, Winter 2016
Second graders at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School studied the cultural significance and creation of masks in African cultures. To kick off the unit, students viewed and held real African masks loaned from the museum’s education curator, Deborah Stokes. They compared and contrasted African masks to masks from other countries.
Students then created their own masks in the style of African masks by incorporating 4 commonly seen characteristics: symmetry, geometric patterning, earth-tone colors, and simplified and enlarged facial features. As part of the creative process, students sketched at least 2 different mask designs and selected 1 to make into a paper mask. Each mask also had at least 1 three-dimensional design element created by sculpting paper.
Deborah Stokes was invited to the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland, to talk with 2nd grade students about meaning-making and African masks. Art teacher Shari Bergel works with African art in her classroom to teach ideas of symmetry, pattern, color, and two- and three-dimensional shapes. The students were also introduced to modernist Amedeo Modigliani and viewed some of his work inspired by some African masks.
Duke Ellington High School, Washington, D.C., Printmaking Class, Fall 2014
Student artists, after watching short tutorials from okessays.com, studied a subtractive technique using scratchboard materials. Each signature composition incorporated important elements of art and principles of design: line, balance, contrast, and value, while featuring the added components of personal identity.
Ideal Academy Public Charter School, Washington, D.C., 2010
DEAL Academy Public Charter School, was chartered by the DC Board of Education in 1999. The school has a population of 480 students ranging in age from pre-kindergarten through 8th grade. For their new home, Shinberg.Levinas architects converted a 37,000 square foot warehouse/office space into a lively, open school. A large central space provides a focal point and multi-use gathering space for students outside of the classroom setting. Within this interior space is a 70 foot wall where the NMAfA’s Education Department has agreed to facilitate a mural project over the next year. We are working with the students and teachers, as well as creating curriculum connections for this initiative to ensure high-quality aesthetic, social and academic benefits.
Wade King Elementary School, Bellingham, WA, K–5, 2012
Every year, students at Wade King Elementary School learn about a different region of the world through their World Tour program.
To kick off 2015’s unit on Africa, 4 of Africa’s 54 nations were highlighted to increase understanding of the world’s cultural and artistic traditions and represent the great diversity of the continent. Students were presented with an introduction to these arts of Africa by the museum’s curator for education, Deborah Stokes. During a week of art activities integrated into their curriculum, Stokes guided students through a variety of art workshops that included Moroccan mosaics, Akan adinkra symbols, West African masks, and Ndebele wall painting designs.
This video was made possible by the work of 5th graders Mimi Baydek and Diane Park, who interviewed students responding to what they liked best about their work during the week of art workshops. Hear their thoughts about lines, colors, shapes, symmetry, abstraction, and patterns!
Stories That Take Us Places!
Monday–Friday at 10:30 a.m.
1/2 hour
Preschool–kindergarten
1–1 1/2 hour
Elementary–middle school
Please submit your request at least 3 weeks in advance to StokesD@si.edu or 202.633.4600.
Interactive storytelling uses student participation to inspire the joy of books and reading. Stories told by leading D.C.-area performance artists and certified educators feature award-winning books that emphasize honesty, kindness, and overcoming obstacles. Themes of diversity and commonality are at the heart of all the stories we share.
The ABC Africa Book Club provides the materials to continue these lessons in your classroom. All materials, including a book for every student, supplied upon request.
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Teacher Development Workshops
By appointment
Minimum 10–maximum 25 participants
Please contact StokesD@si.edu or 202.633.4600.
Get introduced to the museum’s collections and educational resources! Workshops feature a variety of strategies customized to meet your staff-development needs and schedules. All include an introduction to African art and content materials for arts integration across multidisciplinary curricula. The participating organization is responsible for organizing and registering teachers.
Warren M. Robbins Library
Contact 202.633.4680
The Warren M. Robbins Library at the museum is the major resource center in the United States for the research and study of the visual arts of Africa. Its collection of more than 32,000 volumes covers all aspects of African visual arts. It also has small collections of videos, posters, maps, and a significant collection of children’s books, many of them winners of the Children’s Africana Book Award.
Click here for more information, and here to search the Smithsonian Libraries’ catalog.
