Description: Senior Curator and Historian Portia James (1953-2015) pioneered a community-based approach at the Anacostia Community Museum and led the exhibitions, publications and collections programs. She researched African American material culture. #Groundbreaker
Description: Friday, September 15th, 2017 marks the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the Anacostia Community Museum. Originally named the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum, Secretary Ripley envisioned this as a place to reach out to black residents of Washington, DC who were not seeing themselves in the museums on the Mall. Reporting on the opening of the museum, Secretary Ripley writes that
Description: The Anacostia Neighborhood Museum opened on September 15, 1967, in the historic Carver Theater in Anacostia, Washington, DC, as a “store-front museum” to reach underserved communities. In 1987, the museum relocated to a new building at 1901 Fort Place SE, Washington, DC. In 2006, it was renamed the Anacostia Community Museum. History of the Anacostia Community MuseumView
Description: Link Love: a weekly post with links to interesting videos and stories about archival issues, technology and culture, and Washington D.C. and American history.
Description: The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has acquired the earliest known photograph of U.S. President John Quincy Adams. [via Art Fix Daily]For the last 3 decades, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics has amassed 100 years of protest art from around the world. [via AIGA]Related, how museum curators are collecting history as it happens, including those at our own
Description: Sharon Reinckens, Deputy Director, Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, has served as Acting Director, Senior Designer, and Supervisory Visual Information Specialist at the museum, 1980–present. Reinckens also produced award-winning documentaries about African American artists in Washington D.C for the museum. #Groundbreaker