Company Profile
Museum for African Art
Company Overview
The Museum for African Art is the nation’s leading institution dedicated exclusively to fostering understanding and appreciation of the arts, culture and people of Africa, both past and present. Through exhibitions and publications of the highest aesthetic and scholarly merit, and engaging programs of the widest possible audience, the Museum offers the public multiple perspectives from which to appreciate African art and understand the lives of the people who create it.
Company History
The Museum for African Art opened to the public in 1984 in a rented townhouse on New York City's Upper East Side organizing and touring exhibitions on the arts and cultures of Africa and the African Diaspora.
In 1992 the Museum for African Art relocated to New York City's SoHo district, an area once a popular destination for galleries and community of local artists. While in SoHo the Museum launched an expanded schedule of vibrant education programs for adults, children and school groups. The Museum’s retail store began selling crafts produced exclusively for the Museum by artisans and craftspeople and imported directly from Africa and publications on Africa and African art.
In 2002, the Museum moved to temporary quarters in Long Island City, Queens, and in late 2005 it closed its gallery space there in order to focus on developing plans for a new, larger facility that it would own. In September 2007, ground was broken for a new building that will enable the long-needed expansion of the Museum's exhibitions, public programs, and educational initiatives.
In late 2011 the Museum will relocate for the last time in a newly constructed Museum designed by the celebrated Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP. The new Museum for African Art building will be located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 110th Street, in New York City, where it will join Manhattan's "Museum Mile."
The Museum will own and occupy approximately 75,000 square feet housing expansive exhibition and programming spaces, a theater, restaurant/café, event space and retail store. The new facility will enable the Museum to dramatically expand the audiences it serves, providing a powerful link between the diverse cultural communities of New York City and those beyond.
While preparing for the public opening of the new building, the Museum continues to develop important exhibitions that travel to major venues internationally and are accompanied by scholarly publications. It also presents a wide range of public programs for adults, families, and school children, held at locations throughout New York City.
Museum for African Art exhibitions are widely recognized for presenting new perspectives on familiar areas of African art, as well as for introducing subjects and artists that are less well-known. Since its opening, the Museum has organized 56 exhibitions that have traveled to 167 venues in the United States and abroad, bringing the art and cultures of Africa to a wide array of audiences.
Since 1984 the Museum has become internationally recognized as a preeminent source for exhibitions and publications related to historical and contemporary African art, with programs that are as diverse as the continent itself. Visit us online at www.africanart.org.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
Museum for African Art exhibitions are widely recognized for presenting new perspectives on familiar areas of African art, as well as for introducing subjects and artists that are less well-known. Since its opening, the Museum has organized 56 exhibitions that have traveled to 167 venues in the United States and abroad, bringing the art and cultures of Africa to a wide array of audiences.