Anacostia Community Museum
The Anacostia Community Museum is a community museum in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C. in the United States.
Address: 1901 Fort Pl SE, Washington, DC 20020
History of the Museum
Anacostia Community Museum was first founded in 1967 as Anacostia Neighborhood Museum by S. Dillon Ripley as an approach to reach underserved communities outside of the National Mall. John Kinard, a community activist and minister, was chosen founding executive and utilized his abilities in community engagement, sorting out, and effort to shape the training and course of the exhibition hall. Following the inaugural exhibition, which was a diverse blend of art and artifacts from other Smithsonian historical centers, local…show more content… Initiated by executive John Kinard, this work likewise filled in as a stage for his real endeavors to advocate for the rising African American museum movement.
In 1994, the museum built up the documentation and show project entitled Black Mosaic: Community, Race and Ethnicity Among Black Immigrants in Washington. This pivotal display, which celebrates its twentieth commemoration in 2014, uncovered the change of communities in Washington, DC, affected by new migration to the city.
In 1999, the gallery formalized its sense of duty regarding nearby school children by setting up the Museum Academy, a program that continues to give afterschool and summer programming, using a museum based educational modules, for 40 kids in Washington's Ward 7 and Ward 8 neighborhoods.
In 2006 the museum's name was changed to Anacostia Community Museum, mirroring a recharged responsibility regarding analyzing issues of effect to contemporary urban…show more content… This museum was designed by the Washington architecture firm Keyes Condon Florance, covered an area of 28,000 square foot and is considered to be cultural expressionist style architecture.
The exhibition hall opened in 1989, and in 1995 was renamed Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, and filled in as an arranging site for the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
In 2002 there was, need to maximize the space of the museum and to add components to the building that express the history and culture of African Americans. Therefore it embraced an extensive renovation that was led by architecture firms, architrave p.c. and Wisnewski Blair. Components that were included incorporate the red brick exterior that invokes a woven Kente material, and the glass, block, and blue tile decorated solid barrels that are reminiscent of the remains of Great Zimbabwe. In 2006 this historical center was renamed the Anacostia Community Museum. (Smithsonian Archives - History Div)
