- published: 14 Sep 2013
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Coordinates: 38°53′17″N 77°01′32″W / 38.8879941°N 77.0254676°W / 38.8879941; -77.0254676
The National Museum of African Art is an African art museum located in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum is one of nineteen under the wing of the Smithsonian Institution. The museum, which was started in 1964, was originally located at the Frederick Douglass House in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. In 1979 the museum was transferred over to the Smithsonian and relocated to the National Mall. It opened in its current location, underground in the quadrangle complex behind the Smithsonian Institution Building, in 1987.
In 1964, Warren M. Robbins founded the Museum of African Art. It was a privately funded African art museum at the Frederick Douglass House, in Washington, D.C. Robbins owned the building. Robbins, who was a former American Foreign Services officer, was the first museum director. The museum showcased traditional African art and had educational programs about African art and culture. The museum consisted of nine row homes with twelve galleries, a library and a small auditorium. Robbins, who collected African art while overseas serving, sought to "foster an understanding African art in the U.S." The museum grew to have a annual budget of $900,000. Robbins and staff approached the government in 1976 asking the Smithsonian Institution to acquire the museum.
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African Diasporas, such as the art of African Americans. Despite this diversity, there are some unifying artistic themes when considering the totality of the visual culture from the continent of Africa.
African art has a long and surprisingly controversial history. Up until recently, the designation "African" was usually only bestowed on the arts of "Black Africa", the peoples living in Sub-Saharan Africa. The non-black peoples of North Africa, the people of the Horn of Africa, as well as the art of ancient Egypt, generally were not included under the rubric of African art. Recently, however, there has been a movement among African art historians and other scholars to include the visual culture of these areas, since all the cultures that produced them, in fact, are located within the geographic boundaries of the African continent. The notion is that by including all African cultures and their visual culture in African art, laypersons will gain a greater understanding of the continent's cultural diversity. Since there was often a confluence of traditional African, Islamic and Mediterranean cultures, scholars have found that drawing distinct divisions between Muslim areas, ancient Egypt, the Mediterranean and indigenous black African societies makes little sense. Finally, the arts of the people of the African diaspora, prevalent in Brazil, the Caribbean and the southeastern United States, have also begun to be included in the study of African art.