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National Museum of African Art - Smithsonian Institution

Museum News

Joy of African Movement

Joy of African Movement

Mentally and physically recharge with our Joy of African Movement series using a variety of African dance movements led by Afrochique, the premier African female choreography team at the University of Maryland, College Park. Learn traditional West African and contemporary African dance techniques.

Join us Saturday mornings this Summer from 9am-10am in the Pavilion!

Joy of African Movement

  • Saturday July 13, 9am-10am
  • Saturday July 20, 9am-10am
  • Saturday August 3, 9am-10am
  • Saturday August 17, 9am-10am
  • Saturday August 31, 9am-10am

(doors open at 8:30 a.m.)

Ages: 16+

REGISTER HERE

Celebrate the first Saturday of summer on June 22!

Solstice Saturday continues African Art’s Live Arts Series The Earth Still Shakes!

Solstice Saturday continues African Art’s Live Arts Series The Earth Still Shakes! Through musical performances by Inka Kendzia, Chmba, Soñxseed, and Nkosenathi Koela, the series will reflect the spiritual shudders that abound in ritual performance, activism, and actions, and the ways that artists talk through their bodies to express their connections to objects, the natural world, and the cosmos. These live performances will animate and breathe life into the National Museum of African Art’s collections.

Beverages, food trucks, and fun await! Museum store is open until 10 p.m., and galleries are open until midnight!

2pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm, Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts (Sublevel 2)
Docent-led Highlights Tours

4:00 – 5:00pm, Sylvia Williams Gallery
Panel Discussion featuring curator Jay Pather and musicians Inka Kendzia, Chmba, Soñxseed, and Nkosenathi Koela

5:30-9:30pm, Haupt Garden
Music by Eme & Heteru

5:30-6:30pm & 7:30-8:30pm, Pavilion
Music by Nkosenathi Koela

6:30-7:30pm & 8:30-9:30pm, Mezzanine
Music by Soñxseed

9:45-11:45pm, Haupt Garden
Music by Inka Kendzia and Chmba

Register for Solstice Saturday at African Art here

Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross.
Opens June 21

Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross

Celebrated Nigerian sculptor, founding member of the famed Zaria Art Society and printmaker Bruce Onobrakpeya began creating works depicting Christian iconography in 1966, when Catholic priests petitioned the artist to interpret the Passion of Christ. The resulting body of work, titled Fourteen Stations of the Cross, was well received, and Onobrakpeya continued to produce relief, print, and mural commissions for Catholic priests and parishes through 1978. Originally presented by the High Museum of Art (Atlanta, GA), Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross showcases the earliest of these commissions, from the late 1960s, with the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art’s special presentation foregrounding the artist’s commissions in print.

Highlighting a specific creative era spread within three chapters, The Mask and the Cross’s prints blend references to West African tradition, folklore, and cosmology with Catholic motifs and stories from the Bible. Onobrakpeya viewed the Catholic Church’s investment in Nigerian artists and their unique interpretations as redemptive, poetically describing the resulting productions as new “masks” forged from the ashes of those burned by early missionaries.
This exhibition of Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross features a supplemental section on early post-independence Nigerian printmakers, specifically developed for the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art iteration.

Curated by Lauren Tate Baeza, Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and coordinated for the National Museum of African Art by curator Janine Gaëlle Dieudji.

Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta in collaboration with the National Museum of African Art. The presentation at the National Museum of African Art is generously supported by Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Foundation

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Mask
Headrest
Mask
Photograph
Toussaint Louverture
National Museum of African Art

Happy 60th Birthday NMAfA!

Mask
Headrest
Mask
Photograph
Toussaint Louverture
What’s on view
Slide
Bruce Onobrakpeya – The Mask and the Cross
Bruce Onobrakpeya – The Mask and the Cross

Celebrated Nigerian sculptor and printmaker Bruce Onobrakpeya began creating works depicting Christian iconography in 1966, when Catholic priests petitioned the artist to interpret the Passion of Christ. The resulting body of work, titled Fourteen Stations of the Cross, was well received, and Onobrakpeya continued to produce relief, print, and mural commissions for Catholic priests and parishes through 1978. Originally presented by the High Museum of Art (Atlanta, GA), Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross showcases the earliest of these commissions, from the late 1960s, with the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art’s special presentation foregrounding the artist’s commissions in print.

Slide
Bruce Onobrakpeya – La Máscara y la Cruz
Bruce Onobrakpeya – La Máscara y la Cruz

El reconocido escultor y grabador nigeriano Bruce Onobrakpeya comenzó a crear obras que representaban la iconografía cristiana en 1966, cuando unos sacerdotes católicos le encargaron que interpretara la Pasión de Cristo. El resultado fue un conjunto de obras, titulado Las catorce estaciones de la cruz, que fue bien recibido. Onobrakpeya siguió produciendo encargos de relieves, grabados y murales para sacerdotes y parroquias católicos hasta 1978. Presentada originalmente por el High Museum of Art (Atlanta, GA), Bruce Onobrakpeya: La máscara y la cruz exhibe los primeros de estos encargos, desde finales de la década de los sesenta, con la presentación especial del Smithsonian National Museum of African Art que pone en relieve los grabados encargados al artista.

Benin Bronzes: Ambassadors of the Oba / Bronces de Benín Embajadores Del Oba
Benin Bronzes: Ambassadors of the Oba / Bronces de Benín Embajadores Del Oba
Benin Bronzes: Ambassadors of the Oba / Bronces de Benín Embajadores Del Oba

The National Museum of African Art worked with the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) and the Benin City National Museum to identify, and ultimately transfer, ownership of 29 objects. With permission from the kingdom of Benin, nine of these objects are now on long-term loan to the museum; the other 20 have been returned to Nigeria.
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El Museo Nacional de Arte Africano trabajó con la Comisión Nacional de Museos y Monumentos de Nigeria (NCMM) y con el Museo Nacional de la Ciudad de Benín para identificar —y, en última instancia, transferir— la propiedad de 29 objetos. Actualmente, con el permiso del reino de Benín, nueve de estos objetos se encuentran en préstamo a largo plazo en el museo, y los otros 20 se han devuelto a Nigeria.

From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya with Ayana V. Jackson
From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya with Ayana V. Jackson
From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya with Ayana V. Jackson

For her first monographic exhibition, acclaimed photographer Ayana V. Jackson was inspired by the Detroit-based 1990s techno band Drexciya (musicians James Stinson and Gerald Donald) whose albums imagined a mythical aquatopia populated by descendants of pregnant African women thrown (or who jumped) overboard into the Atlantic Ocean during the Middle Passage. In this exhibition, Jackson expands her practice to include animation, immersive video, installation, sound, and scent. She creates a series of haunting, yet profoundly beautiful and empowering encounters that draw upon African water spirits from Senegal to South Africa.

John Akomfrah: Five Murmurations
John Akomfrah: Five Murmurations
John Akomfrah: Five Murmurations

Internationally renowned artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah addresses the global COVID-19 pandemic, murder of George Floyd, and worldwide protests in support of Black Lives Matter in this visual essay of our times. Drawing upon an extensive archive of images that mix iconic works of art with scenes shot and gathered in the globally fraught 18-month period between 2019 and 2021, Five Mumurations considers Akomfrah’s insights into post-colonialism, diasporic experience, and memory.

Before Nollywood . . . The Ideal Photo Studio
Before Nollywood . . . The Ideal Photo Studio
Before Nollywood . . . The Ideal Photo Studio

Before Nollywood . . . The Ideal Photo Studio is a living exhibition and an ongoing research and photography project that explores the lives of patrons from the Ideal Photo Studio and a history of Benin City and its community through the photographs of Solomon Osagie Alonge. We are seeking your help in naming people in the Ideal Photo Studio portraits, and inviting you to share personal stories and memories of your childhood, friends, family, social life, and community in Benin City, Nigeria, at the Tapestry of Benin Memories wall.

Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts
Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts
Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts

Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts, the National Museum of African Art’s most recent, large-scale presentation of its collection, is the first to offer broad thematic connections between artworks across the spectrum of time, place, and medium. Visionary aims to get visitors to look with fresh and focused insight and, in so doing, to see works of art—and each other—with new eyes.

Currents: Water in African ArtWater is in all of us—to live, we need water to drink. Featuring artworks from the museum’s permanent collection, this exhibition proves that water is one of most potent forces on earth. Its currents flow through myths, metaphors, and rituals. Diverse and wide-ranging in material, time period, style, and intended use, the objects in this exhibition span the continent of Africa to explore the importance of water for both practical and artistic purposes.
Currents: Water in African Art
Currents: Water in African Art

Water is in all of us—to live, we need water to drink. Featuring artworks from the museum’s permanent collection, this exhibition proves that water is one of most potent forces on earth. Its currents flow through myths, metaphors, and rituals. Diverse and wide-ranging in material, time period, style, and intended use, the objects in this exhibition span the continent of Africa to explore the importance of water for both practical and artistic purposes.

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News, upcoming events and new exhibitions!

Mimouna 2024

Mimouna

Visit the souk, sample tantalizing dishes, enjoy traditional songs, and take a special tour of artworks that express the interfaith themes and traditions of the Mimouna festival — a special time when Moroccan Jews and Muslims break bread together! The festival marks the end of Passover and the advent of spring, and is based on Moroccan narratives of unity, commemoration, goodwill, and friendship.

Join musicians: NOAM YEKUTIEL SIBONY and ISMAIL BOUZIDOUNE, for this year’s interfaith musical collaboration focused on Chaabi, Andalusi, and Gnawa music styles that reflect some of Morocco’s cultural diversity. Both artists hail from musical families of Casablanca, Morocco.

Chaabi music comes from the Berber-speaking tribes of northern Morrocco, and true to its name meaning “of the people,” it is enjoyed by diverse communities across the country. Gnawa music originates with the Gnawi people who have ancient roots in sub-Saharan Africa, while Andalusi music was originally developed in al-Andalus/Muslim Spain and is exemplified by traditional Sephardic/Moroccan Jewish music.

Register here

Presented in partnership with the Sephardic Heritage International DC (SHIN DC), the Multicultural Jewish Arts Museum (MJAM, a project of SHIN-DC), and the DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities.

The Global Religions of Africa Initiative at the National Museum of African Art is generously supported by Lilly Endowment Inc.

Collaging: Healing, Identity and Freedom through the Arts.

Collaging

Offered every Saturday in May from 1pm- 4:30pm

Inspired by select works on view, join us for an afternoon of collaging as you comb though magazines to create a masterpiece of your own.

In celebration of our 60th anniversary and inspired by select artworks currently on view, join African Art for an afternoon of collaging. Browse through select magazines to create your own masterpiece as you listen to afrobeat’s.

Themes of healing, identity and freedom though the Arts will be explored.

Register through Eventbrite

Cultural Heritage Forward:
A Shared Stewardship and Ethical Returns Exchange Program

Cultural Heritage Forward

Around the world, communities and museums of various sizes and kinds are engaged in a growing conversation about ethical stewardship of cultural heritage. From this conversation, new modes of inclusive museum practice are emerging that reexamine whose stories are told in museums, who tells these stories, who is considered to be part of the audience, and how these stories are relayed to audiences.

To further and deepen the sharing of ideas about museums and cultural heritage stewardship, the U.S. Department of State and the Smithsonian Institution (SI) are launching Cultural Heritage Forward, a new exchange program for museum professionals and community-based cultural heritage practitioners.

The deadline to apply has been extended to 11:59 p.m., April 15th.

To apply, please click here