Press Release

Exhibition Imagines Powerful Underwater World of African Spirits

“From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya with Ayana V. Jackson” will be on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art starting Saturday, April 29. Known for the deftness with which she confronts the racialization and sexualization of Black bodies, Jackson’s exhibition departs from her previous practice focusing on the historic archive of images of women of color with all-new works of speculative fiction that bring to life an immersive, feminist and sacred aquatopia inspired by the legend of Drexciya.

In the 1990s, Drexciya, a Detroit-based techno duo made up of James Stinson and Gerald Donald, imagined an underwater kingdom populated by the children of pregnant women who had been thrown overboard or jumped into the ocean during the Middle Passage. Drexciya’s founding myth has inspired numerous artists, among them Jackson, who uses her own body in her lens-based works to ask that people reckon with the brutal history that cast these humans to the sea while simultaneously envisioning a word of powerful, resilient women.

“Jackson’s artworks are more than just visually stunning,” said Karen Milbourne, senior curator and acting head of knowledge production at the National Museum of African Art. “They honor generations of survivors while not shying away from the horror and suffering of the transatlantic trafficking in enslaved Africans. They demand that we address our shared past and acknowledge sacred powers. Her vision opens a new way of seeing the world.”

On display through April 2024, the exhibition is curated by Milbourne. In addition to original photographs, video, animation, installation, scent and sound, the exhibition includes costumes designed in collaboration with Rama Diaw of Saint Louis, Senegal; Olabangi “Cheddar” Arowoshola of Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana; and Mwambi Wassaki of Luanda, Angola.

A ticketed opening event is planned for the evening of Friday, April 28, and the artist and curator will offer a tour of the exhibition Saturday, April 29. A catalog will accompany the exhibition with contributions by N’Gone Fall, Marta Moreno Vega, Brad Fox, Greg Tate and Ingrid LaFleur.

About Ayana V. Jackson

Born in Livingston, New Jersey (1977) with adopted family in Ghana, Jackson lives and works between Brooklyn, New York; Johannesburg; and Paris. Her experiences in three continents infuse and inform her historically charged and deeply relevant practice. She weds her sociologist’s background with in-depth research into the history of photography, African religions, fashion history and cutting-edge Afrofuturist philosophy to create new works that generate profound impact.

This exhibition presents the artist’s first foray into video and animation, her first monographic museum exhibition and the first presentation of her most recent body of work. The research for this new work began with a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in 2017. With it, Jackson delved into Smithsonian collections and archives and engaged with scholars at the National Museum of African Art, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery. For “From the Deep,” she became certified as a master diver and collaborated with creative artists across the African continent and in Trinidad and Tobago to custom design each garment, design the sound, perform the dive underwater, film and edit the video, generate the animations and create a speculative world.

About the National Museum of African Art

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art is the only museum in the world dedicated solely to the collection, conservation, study and exhibition of Africa’s arts across time and media. The museum’s collection of over 13,000 artworks spans more than 1,000 years of African history and includes a variety of media from across the continent. For more information, call (202) 633-4600 or visit the museum’s website. For general Smithsonian information, the public can call (202) 633-1000. Follow the museum on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art will host +234 Connect, a unique five-day cinematic and exhibition experience celebrating the art, people and cinema of Nigeria, Wednesday, Sept. 28 through Sunday, Oct. 2. The festival, which runs through Nigerian Independence weekend, will feature exhibitions, film screenings, master classes, conversations with filmmakers and artists, a concert and an opportunity for the public to see the celebrated Benin Bronzes before they are returned to Nigeria.

Named for Nigeria’s country code, +234 Connect, is a celebration of African creativity and expression. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore two complementary exhibitions focused on Nigerian art: “Iké Ude: Nollywood Portraits” and “Before Nollywood…The Ideal Photo Studio.” “Iké Ude: Nollywood Portraits” features the work of multimedia artist Iké Ude with photographs of the talented people who drive Nollywood. It opened to the public earlier this year.

“Before Nollywood…The Ideal Photo Studio,” which opens Tuesday, Sept. 27, will celebrate the photography of Solomon Osagie Alonge (1911-1994), an important figure in early Nigerian studio photography, and the owner of Ideal Photo Studio, the first commercial photography studio in Benin City. Alonge’s studio portraits of Benin City residents in the 1950s and 1960s feature individuals and families photographed with carefully selected costumes, furniture, backdrops and props. The photographs serve as a historical precursor to, and contextualize Ude’s photographs, which use color, attire and other markers to make a bold statement about the power of African identities despite centuries of attempted erasure by Eurocentric art history and notions of beauty. Members of the local Edo community and the public are invited to participate in a Family Photo Shoot on Saturday, Oct. 1, where an on-site stylist will be available to help capture visitors’ best poses in a designed set, inspired by the artworks in the “Iké Ude: Nollywood Portraits” exhibition.

A full schedule of festival programs can be found on the museum’s website. Programming highlights include a screening of the seminal Nollywood movie, “Living in Bondage,” master classes by Dame Taiwo Ajai-Lycett and Yolanda Okereke, as well as panel discussions and conversations by Nollywood filmmakers and actors, including Obi Emelonye, Chioma Ude, O.C. Ukeje and Tope Oshin.

Benin Bronzes

From Sept. 27 through Oct. 11, visitors will also have a final opportunity to appreciate the beauty and creativity of a selection of Benin bronzes, which were part of the museum’s Benin Royal Art collection, due to be officially deaccessioned and returned to Nigeria in a private ceremony Oct. 11. There will also be a screening of the film “Invasion 1897,” which tells the story of the British invasion and looting of the Kingdom of Benin followed by a conversation on the calls for restitution, reparations and the return of artworks to Nigeria. The discussion will include the film’s director Lancelot Imasuen, artist Victor Ehikhamenor, and Prof. Abba Tijani, director general of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments.

About the National Museum of African Art

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art is the only museum in the world dedicated solely to the collection, conservation, study, and exhibition of Africa’s arts across time and media. It boasts a collection of over 12,000 artworks spanning more than 1,000 years of African history and includes a variety of media from across the continent.  The museum has a new mission to become a 21st century global African art museum by reimagining itself—art experiences, knowledge production, collections and practices—to better contribute to regenerative art ecosystems on the continent and throughout the diaspora. The aim is to not just be ‘about’ Africa but to be of Africa and for Africans in the U.S., in Africa and globally. More information is available on the museum’s website. Follow the museum on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. 

In the lead up to the 10th Basha Uhuru Festival, the National Museum of African Art will host a 10-day series of art experiences titled “The Demonstration” at Constitution Hill Sept. 15–25. “The Demonstration,” part of the museum’s NMAFA+ series, will include an exhibition, public conversations and artist-led city tours.

Curated by Johannesburg-based artist Siwa Mgoboza, “The Demonstration” experiences will focus on the theme of “Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past,” which aligns with the Smithsonian-wide initiative to address systemic racism and racial inequity in the U.S. and globally.

Beginning Sept. 15, members of the public are invited to an exhibition designed to support and amplify South African artists whose work pushes boundaries and provokes important conversations. Featured artists include Blessing Ngobeni, Patrick Bongoy, Luke Radolff, Nelisiwe Xaba & Mocke Jansen van Veuren, and Ayana V. Jackson.

In addition to the art installations and activations, the experiences will also include:

• ‘African Artists Host Conversations on Race’ … and Migration, Incarceration, Media &Representation, Identity, and Resistance
• Curator-led exhibition tours
• ‘Joburg Through the Eyes of Artists—tours in Fordsburg, Soweto and Westbury, led by artists Haroon Gunn-Salie, Senzeni Marasela and Jodie Pather, in collaboration with Open City+

“We believe in art as an important catalyst for conversation and to reimagine change,” said Ngaire Blankenberg, director of the National Museum of African Art and herself a South African. “Siwa Mgoboza has brought together some remarkable artists to challenge us to confront issues of racism that are so persistent and pervasive in both American and South African societies. At NMAfA, we are reimagining the museum to help create sustainable, regenerative art ecosystems throughout global Africa, and NMAfA+ experiences are just the first step in this experimentation.”

As a preview to the experience, the National Museum of African Art partnered with the Moleskine Foundation for an intensive, five-day ‘AtWork’ workshop for young people on creative leadership and personal development. Led by renowned curator Simon Njami, the workshop brought together a mix of creative young people to reckon with themselves, what drives them and their personal histories.

“Our mission is to unlock the creative potential of young people all over the world to transform themselves and the communities around them,” said Adama Sanneh, CEO and co-founder of Moleskine Foundation. “We are excited to work with NMAfA and Constitution Hill, with whom we share the same vision of creativity for social change. Our signature educational format AtWork, hosted for the first time in Johannesburg, helped spark new critical debates and conversation with this vibrant, young creative scene.”

It is especially poignant that the experience will take place at Constitution Hill, an iconic site of heritage, art and justice. It is a space that uses the heritage of the past to inspire the future through its Creative Hub and year-round programs in social justice, human rights and constitutional education.

“Constitution Hill is built on the key pillars of creativity and justice,” said Constitution Hill CEO Dawn Robertson. “This Smithsonian initiative for social change aligns completely with our efforts at Constitution Hill to inspire positive social change through creativity. It provides an opportunity for us to facilitate discussions around the complexities of racial and social justice and the role of art while elevating and empowering the voices of young people.”

About the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art

The Smithsonian is a diverse museum and research complex in Washington, D.C., dedicated to the increase and diffusion of knowledge. The National Museum of African Art is part of the Smithsonian with a mission to be a 21st-century global African art museum. The museum’s collection of primarily visual arts span across the continent from the 10th century until today. As part of an ongoing and radical revisioning, the museum now also provides dynamic and collaborative art experiences in locations across the continent and throughout global African spaces to nurture regenerative art ecosystems.

NMAFA+ is a series of experimental art experiences throughout the African diaspora produced by the National Museum of African Art. These “pop-up” art events enable African audiences to “visit the Smithsonian” while fostering cross-cultural engagement, creativity, coalition building and scholarship.

Constitution Hill

Constitution Hill is a living museum and heritage site that tells the story of South Africa’s journey to democracy. The site is a former prison and military fort that bears testament to South Africa’s turbulent past and, today, is home to the country’s Constitutional Court, which endorses the rights of all citizens and hosts a permanent curated art collection of more than 400 pieces that reflect on themes of justice, human rights and reconciliation. Showcasing four museums, pop-up exhibitions, public events and rapid-response programs, the museum is also home to the Creative Uprising Hub and South Africa’s only Human Rights Festival.

The Moleskine Foundation

The Moleskine Foundation is a nonprofit organization that aims to inspire a new generation of creative thinkers and doers able to affect change in their communities and beyond. Some of the key strengths of the foundation include its original approach, lean organizational structure, established brand and its mission of Creativity for Social Change. The foundation has implemented 20 chapters of its AtWork program, starting in Dakar, and including in Abidjan, Kampala, Cairo, Addis Ababa, New York, London and Maputo.

FNB Art Joburg and Open City+

Johannesburg is the cultural and economic capital of Africa, and FNB Art Joburg is its leading art fair. Art Joburg believes there is no better place than Johannesburg to show all of its best artists under one roof. Because artists are best served by strong galleries—with long-term representation, physical exhibition spaces and free entry for the public—Art Joburg is run for galleries with galleries and is committed to further building the region’s gallery infrastructure. As Africa’s longest running contemporary art fair held in the culture capital of the continent, Art Joburg has mandated itself to sustainably support and grow the continent’s cultural offering in ways that go beyond the traditional art fair. When the world was struck with a pandemic and Art Joburg could not host a physical fair, it found a way to serve the arts by activating the city and its creative economy through the inaugural Open City held in October 2021. In its quest for economic stimulation and inclusivity in the creative arts, Open City looks to give independent as well as emergent cultural practitioners working in art, music, performance, film, food and fashion an opportunity to reach a wider audience of culture consumers.

Our Shared Future: What Comes First? for the youth of Johannesburg

Moleskine Foundation will partner with the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Constitution Hill for the next chapter of its AtWork educational tour What Comes First? Held August 26 – 30, 2022, in the iconic Constitution Hill—a former apartheid prison complex—in Johannesburg, the workshop is part of The Demonstration, a 10-day experience presented by the National Museum of African Art in collaboration with Johannesburg Art Fair’s Open City and the Moleskine Foundation.

The Demonstration, curated by South African visual artist and cultural curator Siwa Mgoboza. The experiences will focus on the theme of ‘Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past’ as part of a One Smithsonian coordinated, institutional effort to explicitly address systemic racism and racial inequity and take the issue to a global community through the lens of art and creativity.

It is particularly relevant and timely—when Johannesburg is pulsing with the FNB Joburg Art Fair, Open City and other important events—for AtWork to participate in this vibrant program. The workshop will provide a space where an unconventional mix of creative young people from diverse backgrounds and underserved communities can reckon with the past and imagine the future in dialogue with young artists, collectors, policymakers, lawyers, doctors, and curators.

Led by Simon Njami, internationally renowned writer, curator, lecturer, critic, essayist, and Moleskine Foundation advisor, 25 young thinkers will debate and discuss on the topic “What comes first?” before each produces a personalized notebook that is the reflection of a thought at work and expresses what comes first for each of them. Their works will be exhibited at the Old Fort of Constitution Hill starting September 3 before becoming part of the Moleskine Foundation Collection, a unique archive of more than 1400 art notebooks.

About AtWork

AtWork is an itinerant educational format, conceived by Moleskine Foundation and Simon Njami, that uses the creative process to stimulate critical thinking and debate among young people. By unlocking participants’ creative potential through collective discussion and personal reflection, AtWork workshops cultivate self-awareness, self-confidence, and changemaking attitudes and contribute to building a new generation of creative thinkers and doers. All AtWork participants become part of the AtWork community of global creative thinkers who believe that creativity can be a tool for social transformation.

Since its inception in 2012, AtWork has held 24 workshops in 15 countries for more than 500 students. AtWork Johannesburg is the third chapter of the 2022 AtWork What Comes First? tour that started in Milan (Italy), proceeded to Paris (France), and will be going to N’Djamena (Chad) in October.

About Simon Njami

Simon Njami is an internationally acclaimed writer, curator, lecturer, critic, and essayist based in Paris. He has served as artistic director of many biennales, including the Bamako Photography Biennial, Dakar Biennale, and Kampala Biennale. He cocurated the first African pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007) and curated the first African contemporary art fair in Johannesburg (2008). He also served as cultural advisor to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 10 years. A member of numerous art and photography juries, Njami has curated many exhibitions, including Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists (2014–15) and Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent (2004–07). Njami also cofounded and was editor-in-chief of Revue Noire. He received an M.A. in art history and philosophy and a Ph.D. in law and modern literature.

About Moleskine Foundation

The Moleskine Foundation is a non-profit organization that pursues a mission of “Creativity for Social Change.” A central belief is that creativity is key to producing positive change in society and driving our collective future. Its focus is to inspire, empower and connect young people to transform themselves and their communities. To do so, the Foundation implements a set of unconventional educational programs that unlock the creative potential and develop change making attitude in youth. The Foundation enables collaborative processes to generate spaces where criticality and imagination can occur. It is done through the development of a global platform of cultural and creative partner organizations operating in the field of creativity for social transformation.

Moleskine and Moleskine Foundation share the core values, mission and vision around the role of creativity and culture to change the world. To pursue this mission Moleskine Foundation operates in complete independence from the company. Moleskine’s financial contribution sustains the Foundation’s operational costs, allowing 100% of the attracted resources to go straight to impact, creating a unique and authentic model for social change.

Nollywood A-listers talk about art, cinema and the power of beauty as part of the global launch of “Iké Udé: Nollywood Portraits” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. This virtual event will kick off Black History Month at the museum for audiences around the world Friday, Feb. 11, at noon ET (in Nigeria: 18h00 WAT/CET). Featuring an exclusive opportunity to ask questions directly of some of Nollywood’s brightest stars, “Africa Is Beautiful” invites the museum’s global audiences to engage with their favorite talent alongside Iké Udé, the artist who captured their portraits on film.

Addressing themes such as standards of beauty, self-love and the power of art will be:

• Eku Edewor, named “Nollywood’s Most Daring Star” by Vogue magazine
• Alexx Ekubo, Pulse magazine’s 2014 pick for sexiest man in Nigeria
• Enyinna Nwigwe, star of smash hit, The Wedding Party
• Joke Silva, one of the most successful and influential actresses in Nigeria
• Iké Udé, the visionary artist behind “Nollywood Portraits”

The program, which will include an exclusive screening of the documentary “Nollywood in Focus” and a sneak peek at the exhibition, will be hosted by Touria El Glaoui, voted one of the 100 most influential women in Africa by Forbes and the founding director of the 1:54 Contemporary Art Fair.

“Africa Is Beautiful” will stream on Zoom and is free to the public. Advanced registration is encouraged online. More information on the program and participants is available on the museum’s website.

About “Iké Udé: Nollywood Portraits”

“Iké Udé: Nollywood Portraits,” which opens at the National Museum of African Art Saturday, Feb. 5, features the work of New York-based Nigerian artist Udé. The exhibition explores African beauty through the artist’s portraits of the people who drive Nollywood, Nigeria’s $3 billion film industry.

About the National Museum of African Art

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art is the only museum in the world dedicated solely to the collection, conservation, study and exhibition of Africa’s arts across time and media. The museum’s collection of over 12,000 artworks spans more than 1,000 years of African history and includes a variety of media from across the continent. For more information, call (202) 633-4600 or visit the museum’s website. For general Smithsonian information, the public can call (202) 633-1000. Follow the museum on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

Exhibition Explores African Beauty Through Portraits of Nollywood Celebrities

“Iké Udé: Nollywood Portraits” will be on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art starting Saturday, Feb. 5. Multimedia artist Iké Udé celebrates the luminescent beauty and mystique of Nigerian visionaries by turning his lens on the talented people who drive Nollywood, Nigeria’s $3 billion film industry. Known for his performative and iconoclastic style and vibrant sense of composition, Udé’s photographs use color, attire and other markers to make elegant yet unexpected portraits. His photographs make a bold statement about the power of African identities, despite centuries of attempted erasure by Eurocentric art history and notions of beauty.

Currently based in the U.S., Udé is originally from Nigeria. After three decades away, he returned to Lagos, Nigeria, in 2014 to photograph its celebrities. The exhibition features 33 of Udé’s 64 portraits of Nollywood film stars, directors and producers, alongside—for the first time—some of the garments styled by the stars and a bespoke set, in which visitors can create their own identities with the help of on-site stylists.

“Black History Month is an opportunity to reflect on the contributions of African people across the globe to art, to history, to culture and to our common humanity,” said Ngaire Blankenberg, director of the National Museum of African Art. “Whether he turns his camera on himself, flowers or the talented stars of Nollywood, Iké Udé presents a world of beauty, and most powerfully, a world that centers African beauty.”

On display through February 2023, the exhibition was originated by independent curator Selene Wendt and curated for the Smithsonian by Karen E. Milbourne. In addition to Udé’s portraits, the exhibition will feature fashion, film clips and interviews with such Nollywood celebrities as Alexx Ekubo and Taiwo Ajai-Lycett.

“Iké Udé is a true visionary who presents himself and the world around him with a combination of extraordinary style, cutting intellectual humor and exacting detail,” said Milbourne, senior curator for the National Museum of African Art. “He reveals how each of us performs our identity, and in the case of these Nollywood stars, he takes us beyond the façade of celebrity. He invites us to see how they, themselves, want to be seen.”

The exhibition counters the isolation of COVID-19 and winter in Washington with a unique and regenerative visitor experience. Everybody is celebrated as they enter on a red carpet. Weekends will be especially dynamic as visitors are invited to bring their best selves (and outfits) to the museum to be enhanced by an on-site stylist before taking a photograph in an Udé-style set. Visitors can also explore portrait art using interactive tools in which they can combine set, stage and costume to envision lustrous compositions of their own. The exhibition will launch globally with a virtual event featuring Nollywood stars discussing their portrait experience and taking questions from the audience, as well as an exclusive preview of Udé’s documentary short, “Nollywood in Focus.”

About Iké Udé

Throughout his career, Udé (b. 1964, Lagos, Nigeria) has consistently challenged distinctions between art, performance and style and has positioned himself at the forefront of each. He is perhaps most widely recognized for his performative, often autobiographical, approach to photography, which is typically bold, ironic, playful and inquisitive. With the launch of his art, culture and fashion magazine aRude in 1995, Udé set the standard for what would set a trend of similar magazines worldwide.

About the National Museum of African Art

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art is the only museum in the world dedicated solely to the collection, conservation, study and exhibition of Africa’s arts across time and media. The museum’s collection of over 12,000 artworks spans more than 1,000 years of African history and includes a variety of media from across the continent. For more information, call (202) 633-4600 or visit the museum’s website. For general Smithsonian information, the public can call (202) 633-1000. Follow the museum on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

New Exhibition “Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time” Now Extended to February 2022

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art reopens Friday, July 16. This is the first opportunity for visitors to see the museum’s newest exhibition, “Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange Across Medieval Saharan Africa.” Originally scheduled to open in April 2020, the exhibition has been extended until Feb. 27, 2022.

“The exhibition is a landmark opportunity to reconsider our understanding of world history,” said Kevin D. Dumouchelle, curator at the National Museum of African Art. “In this exhibition, African artists, innovators, intellectuals and traders reclaim their central place in our understanding of a period that laid the foundations for the global early modern world. Africa’s history truly is a world history.”

“Caravans of Gold” is the first major exhibition to explore global medieval Saharan Africa and the pivotal role traders, artists and intellectuals had in bridging connections between West Africa (including modern-day Morocco, Mali and Nigeria) to places as remote from the Sahara as Italy, Iran, China and the U.K. The exhibition features over 300 works from the eighth to 15th centuries A.D. demonstrating the global reach of African peoples, ideas and materials in the period.

Developed in close collaboration with lending partner institutions in Mali, Morocco and Nigeria, “Caravans of Gold” displays only archaeological works from public collections in Africa, the U.S. or Europe that were legally exported from their country of origin. It also features globally recognized masterworks from national museum collections in Nigeria, Mali and Morocco, on view to visitors in Washington, D.C., for the first time.

“‘Caravans of Gold’ is the starting point for a new understanding of the medieval past and for seeing the present in a new light,” said Kathleen Bickford Berzock, the exhibition’s organizing curator and associate director for curatorial affairs at Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art. “The legacy of medieval trans-Saharan exchange has largely been omitted from Western historical narratives and art histories, and certainly from the way that Africa is presented in art museums. This exhibition goes a long way to address this. ‘Caravans of Gold’ shines a light on Africa’s pivotal role in world history through the tangible materials that remain.”

The exhibition is on view until Feb. 27, 2022, thanks to its lending institutions and the collaborative efforts of the Block Museum of Art, the exhibition’s originating museum. Visitors can also view the exhibition online.

Exhibition Publication

The exhibition is accompanied by the publication Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time, edited by Berzock and co-published by the Block Museum of Art and Princeton University Press. The recipient of multiple recent awards, including those from the Association of Art Museum Curators and the Arts Council of the African Studies Association, the publication draws on interdisciplinary discoveries and research to construct a compelling look at networks and narratives that center the Sahara in medieval history. In the lavishly illustrated volume, 21 international contributors present case studies that form a rich portrayal of a distant time. Topics include descriptions of key medieval cities around the Sahara; networks of exchange that contributed to the circulation of gold, copper and ivory and their associated art forms; and medieval glass bead production in West Africa’s forest region.

About the National Museum of African Art

The National Museum of African Art is the only museum in the world dedicated solely to the collection, conservation, study and exhibition of Africa’s arts across time and media. The museum’s collection of over 12,000 artworks spans more than 1,000 years of African history and includes a variety of media from across the continent—from sculpture and painting, to photography, pottery, jewelry, textile, video and sound art. The museum is located at 950 Independence Ave. S.W., near the Smithsonian Metrorail station on the Blue, Orange and Silver lines. For more information, call (202) 633-4600 or visit the National Museum of African Art’s website. For general Smithsonian information, call (202) 633-1000. Follow the museum on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook and join in the discussion about the exhibition on social media using #CaravansOfGold or #CaravansNMAfA.