National Museum Of African Art

The Museum At The Frederick Douglass House

Robbins began to develop the idea for an African art museum while he was working in Germany.Stanford, Love Not All Requited. He resigned from the State Department in 1962 and, one year later, founded the Center for Cross-Cultural Communication in Washington, D.C. Its first major project was to raise funds to open a museum of African art.Stephen Rosoff, The Collector, Michigan Alumnus : 28. Robbins bought a second-hand IBM,Stanford, Love Not All Requited. hired a small staff, and worked out of his basement, making calls and writing to potential patrons. In 1964, he took out a mortgage to purchase the former home of Frederick Douglass, located behind the Supreme Court building, and established the Frederick Douglass Institute of Negro Arts and History, which was dedicated on September 21. The museum and institute had the mission of sponsoring exhibits and lectures on the contributions of African and African American people in the United States.Penelope Lemov and Gail Werner, African Art Museum and Douglass Institute Are Booming, New York Times, June 29, 1969 Eden Orelove, Happy Birthday Frederick Douglass!: A Commemorative Blog from the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Collections Blog, February 14, 2008, .

Civil Rights And Home Rule Era

The was ratified in 1961, granting the district three votes in the for the election of president and vice president, but still no voting representation in Congress.

After the , on April 4, 1968, , primarily in the U Street, 14th Street, 7th Street, and H Street corridors, centers of black residential and commercial areas. The riots raged for three days until more than 13,600 federal troops and D.C. Army National Guardsmen stopped the violence. Many stores and other buildings were burned rebuilding was not completed until the late 1990s.

In 1973, Congress enacted the , providing for an elected mayor and thirteen-member council for the district. In 1975, became the first elected and first black mayor of the district.

Category: National Museum Of African Art

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National Museum Of Ghana

The National Museum of Ghana is in the Ghanaian capital, Accra. It is the largest and oldest of the six African Art museums under the administration of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board . The National Museum of Ghana building was opened on 5 March 1957 as part of Ghanas independence celebrations. The official opening was performed by the Duchess of Kent, Princess Marina. This African Art Museum’s first Director was A.W. Lawrence. Objects of archaeology, ethnography as well as fine art find place in the National Museum building.

Objects in the archeology section range from the stone age period to the recent historical past. Those on permanent exhibition at the ethnography gallery include chiefs regalia, indigenous Ghanaian musical instruments, gold weights, beads, traditional textiles, stools and pottery. There are also objects from other African countries acquired through exchange. Examples are Senfu masks from Ivory Coast, Zulu wooden figures and bead-ware from Southern Africa. In addition there are also ancient Ife bronze heads from Nigeria and Bushongo carvings from the Congo. Exhibits at the small but impressive art gallery consist mainly of contemporary Ghanaian African paintings executed in oils, pastels, acrylics, watercolours and collages. Apart from these there are African sculpture pieces in different media.

Highlights Of The National Museum Of African Art

• Bini-Portuguese style Ivory spoons, saltcellars, and hunting horns featuring European subjects made for export
• Figures created by the Luba peoples, Gabon Democratic Republic, Late 19th to early 20th century
• Four-faced helmet mask from the Cross River region
• Ceramic figures dating from between the 13th and 15th centuries
• Masks from the Boki peoples, Nigeria, Late 19th to early 20th century
• Crown by the Yoruba peoples, Nigeria Early 20th century

A sculptural vessel the sweeping curves of its handles and its firmly planted feet is an allusion to the human body

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Jets Qb Joe Flacco Vikings Rb Dalvin Cook Among 46 Nfl Players Placed On Reserve/covid

Both Saints veteran quarterbacks, Taysom Hill and Trevor Siemian, Minnesota star running back Dalvin Cook, Jets backup quarterback Joe Flacco and Cleveland center JC Tretter, the NFL Players Association president, tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.

A total of 46 players 38 on the active roster and eight on the practice squad were placed on the COVID-19 list Thursday, all as a result of a positive test.

Hill and Siemian were among nine players for New Orleans placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list. The others include such key players as safety Malcolm Jenkins and tackle Jordan Mills, who is expected to start Monday night against Miami.

The situation left Ian Book, a rookie out of Notre Dame who has been inactive for all 14 games, as the only active quarterback under contract. It appears Book is in line for his maiden NFL regular-season appearance. Running back Alvin Kamara has been the Saints emergency quarterback for several seasons and conceivably could take direct snaps as a wildcat threat.

The latest COVID-19 hit to the Saints came as New Orleans awaits the return of coach Sean Payton, who did not travel to Tampa Bay for the Saints victory has worked from home since testing positive for COVID-19 last Thursday. Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen has been serving as acting head coach.

Tretter posted on Twitter that he was experiencing symptoms and chose to be tested at the teams facility in Berea, Ohio.

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The National Museum Of African Art Is Returning Benin Bronzes To Nigeria

According to new reports, Benin bronzes housed in the Smithsonian Institutes National Museum of African Art have been selected for repatriation, a development thats recently been mirrored by several other institutions across the world. Germany is in accelerated talks to return its Benin bronzes to Nigeria, and just last week, Jesus College in the U.K. and University of Aberdeen also repatriated their Benin bronzes. Earlier this year, the National Museum of African Art had as many as 21 Benin bronzes on display in their collection, and has been able to trace the provenance of several of these objects directly to the forceful looting of the objects committed by the British in 1897.

I can confirm that we have taken down the Benin bronzes we had on display and we are fully committed to repatriation, Ngaire Blankenberg, the director of the National Museum of African Art, said in a statement. We cannot build for the future without making our best effort at healing the wounds of the past.

Over the summer, the the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that it will be promptly returning two 16th century brass plaques, Warrior Chief and , and one 14th century brass plaque, Ife Head, to Nigeria. The first two items are Benin bronzes, while the latter object can also be traced back to Nigeria.

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National Museum Of African Art Virtual Tour

The National Museum of African Art has a collection that includes 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from Sub-Saharan and Arab North Africa.

The institution was first founded in 1964, with a collection focused on traditional African art. It joined the Smithsonian Institution in 1979 and became the National Museum of African Art two years later.

As the Smithsonian Institutions African art museum, it was the first institution dedicated to African art in the United States.

Today the collection is exhibited in a mostly underground museum building that was completed in 1987, just off the National Mall and adjacent to other Smithsonian museums.

The National Museum of African Art collects traditional and contemporary works of historical importance.

The collection ranges from 15th-century sculptures and masks to multi-media contemporary art and includes 300,000 photographs with significant contributions from photojournalists covered major 20th-century events.

The museums library has over 50,000 volumes in visual arts, anthropology, cooking, history, religion, and travel especially works published in Africa.

The Smithsonians National Museum of African Art

Exclusive: Former Smithsonian Staff Speak Out Against ‘culture Of Racism’ At African Art Museum

Ten former staff and board members of the worlds largest museum complex have urged executives to address an alleged long-standing culture of racism at its museum of African art.

A group of former staff members at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., have accused their leadership of turning a blind eye to concerns of bigotry in a two-page letter seen by HuffPost.

The letters signatories are calling for the resignation of the NMAfAs deputy director and chief curator Christine Mullen Kreamer to enable real, systemic changes in the museums practices and policy implementation.

The letter was addressed to Smithsonian secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, who last year became the first Black person to serve as the institutions head and now oversees 19 Smithsonian museums.

The letter alleges that more than 10 former or current Black employees have reported or experienced incidents of racial bias, hostile verbal attacks, retaliation, terminations, microaggressions and degrading comments, all of which have been ignored by management when raised formally.

On several occasions, managers at the museum have attempted to promote white employees into vacant roles while disregarding the institutional policy requiring a competitive application process, former staffers said.

Persistent racial disparities at NMAfA are apparent in the application of institutional policies, the letter reads.

Casely-Hayford did not respond to a request for comment.

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Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world’s largest and most inclusive collections of art, from the colonial period to the present, made in the United States. The museum has more than 7,000 artists represented in the collection. Most exhibitions take place in the museum’s main building, the old Patent Office Building ” rel=”nofollow”> National Portrait Gallery), while craft-focused exhibitions are shown in the Renwick Gallery.

The museum provides electronic resources to schools and the public through its national education program. It maintains seven online research databases with more than 500,000 records, including the Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture that document more than 400,000 artworks in public and private collections worldwide. Since 1951, the museum has maintained a traveling exhibition program as of 2013, more than 2.5 million visitors have seen the exhibitions.

Theyre Calling For Chief Curator Christine Mullen Kreamer To Step Down

Ten former staffers and members of the board at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., have alleged a culture of racism at the institution dating back years. Writing in a letter to Smithsonian secretary Lonnie Bunch III, they detail a toxic workplace with incidents including racial bias, hostile verbal attacks, retaliation, terminations, microaggressions and degrading comments.

A former employee claimed that just five out of 40 full-time staffers at the museum before they departed were black and that there had been no black curators for more than 10 years. The signatories have called for the resignation of deputy director and chief curator Christine Mullen Kreamer, who they say has had multiple complaints filed concerning racism and mismanagement they allege that Kreamer favoured white employees in hiring decisions and displayed consistent bullying and hostility towards black employees who challenged her.

A former black curator and director at the museum, Gus Casely-Hayford, was singled out in the letter for allegedly taking little action to improve the situation. He is currently director of V& A East, London, and recently wrote about racial inequality in the artworld. This situation became particularly distressing under Gus Casely-Hayford, resulting in negative impacts on Black staff, as well as NMAfAs reputation within the broader community, the signatories wrote.

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The Frederick Douglass House Era

In 1964, a privately funded Museum of African Art was established by Warren M. Robbins, a former American Foreign Service officer, at the Frederick Douglass House in Washington, DC. Robbins served as first director of the museum, which mounted exhibitions of traditional African artwork, and developed educational programs to foster public insight and appreciation of the cultures and artistic achievements of Africa. On October 5, 1978, the US Congress passed legislation approving the transfer of the museum to the Smithsonian. When the museum transfer was completed on August 13, 1979, its collections included some eight thousand objects of African sculpture, costumes, textiles, musical instruments, and jewelry numerous books on African culture and history early maps of Africa educational materials and photographs, slides, and film segments on African art, society, and environment bequeathed to the museum by world-renowned photographer Eliot Elisofon.

In 1981, the Museum of African Art was renamed the National Museum of African Art. In 1984, the museum opened Ethiopia: The Christian Art of an African Nation, its last exhibit at the Frederick Douglass House and in 1986, the Frederick Douglass House and adjacent properties were sold to a private organization, as the collections moved to the National Mall. On September 28, 1987, the National Museum of African Art re-opened as part of the Quadrangle complex in the South Yard behind the Smithsonian Institution Building.

Available During Your Visit

The list below specifies the exhibitions and areas of the museum that are currently open as well as those that are closed or unavailable due to precautions related to COVID-19.

Open

Email:

Smithsonian information specialists are also available Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

COVID-19 is an extremely contagious disease that is believed to mainly spread from person-to-person contact. The Smithsonian is doing its part to mitigate transmission intensity, and we ask youour visitorsto do the same and help us reduce the spread of COVID-19. You must follow all posted instructions while visiting the Smithsonian, including instructions about wearing face coverings and social distancing. Despite these measures, the risk of contracting COVID-19 could increase by visiting the Smithsonian. By visiting the Smithsonian, you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19.

The Smithsonian reserves the right to modify its hours of operations, capacity, and visitor guidelines as circumstances require and to deny entry or access to any person who fails to follow these guidelines or whose conduct puts Smithsonian staff, visitors, or property at risk.

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Retrocession And The Civil War

In the 1830s, the district’s southern territory of Alexandria went into economic decline partly due to neglect by Congress. The city of Alexandria was a major market in the American , and pro-slavery residents feared that in Congress would in the district, further depressing the economy. Alexandria’s citizens petitioned Virginia to take back the land it had donated to form the district, through a process known as .

The voted in February 1846 to accept the return of Alexandria. On July 9, 1846, Congress agreed to return all the territory that Virginia had ceded. Therefore, the district’s area consists only of the portion originally donated by Maryland. Confirming the fears of pro-slavery Alexandrians, the outlawed the slave trade in the District, although not slavery itself.

The outbreak of the in 1861 led to the expansion of the federal government and notable growth in the district’s population, including a large influx of freed slaves. President signed the in 1862, which ended slavery in the district of Columbia and freed about 3,100 enslaved persons, nine months prior to the . In 1868, Congress granted the district’s male residents the right to vote in municipal elections.

Programs And Research Facilities

The museum has a changing loan exhibition program as well as exhibitions featuring the permanent collection. Exhibitions may focus on an artist, culture, era, medium, region, theme or issue, or a combination of these. Exhibitions may take shape in the museum, on-line or as a pop-up outside Washington, DC and frequently integrate new technologies.

The Museums conservation department focuses on developing and applying appropriate preservation treatment for works of art in the permanent collection, as well as preventive measures to arrest the deterioration of objects on exhibition, in storage, and on loan. The department maintains a 1,300 square foot laboratory and occasionally utilizes additional analytical expertise available throughout the Smithsonian for condition assessments and the technical study of African art objects.

The Warren M. Robbins Library of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries is a specialized research library supports a wide range of research topics in African art, archaeology, history and cultural studies. The library collection is augmented by extensive files on African artists and files of other unpublished and ephemeral materials. The SIRIS online catalog provides specific access to the collections.

The Museum has an active public education program for schools and adults conducted through performing arts, workshops, lectures, films, tours, and outreach activities.

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We Cannot Build For The Future Without Making Our Best Effort At Healing The Wounds Of The Past The Museums Director Says

A Benin Kingdom plaque in the Smithsonian’s collection thought to have been looted in the 1897 raid

The Smithsonian Institutes National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC has removed its Benin bronzes from display and is planning to repatriate artefacts that were looted by the British in an 1897 raid on the royal palace, according to the museums director, Ngaire Blankenberg.

I can confirm that we have taken down the Benin bronzes we had on display and we are fully committed to repatriation, Blankenberg says. We cannot build for the future without making our best effort at healing the wounds of the past.

The museum had 21 objects from the Kingdom of Benin on display earlier this year. Its online database lists 38 objects from Benin in the collection. Around half have been traced to the British punitive expedition to Benin in 1897, including several plaques, commemorative heads and figures. Provenance research on other items is still ongoing.

After the 1897 looting, artefacts from Benins royal palace were sold off and scattered around the world Benin objects are now held by more than 160 international museums, including several in the US. The University of Californias Fowler Museum has also said it plans talks with the Nigerian authorities on the future of 18 objects in its collection from the Kingdom of Benin.