Founded in 1964 by Warren M. Robbins as a private educational institution, the Museum of African Art occupied a townhouse once owned by Frederick Douglass, a former slave, newspaper editor, abolitionist, and statesman. The museum had a few examples of Douglass memorabilia and was given a fine collection of nineteenth-century paintings by African American artists. Its collection of African material was relatively small, so early exhibitions of African art often consisted of loaned materials.
In 1979 the Museum of African Art became part of the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1981 it was officially renamed the National Museum of African Art. Sylvia H. Williams and Roy Seiber joined the museum in 1983 as director and associate director for research and collections, respectively. Plans were made for a new facility on the National Mall that would be accessible to a new and larger audience, and in 1987 the museum relocated to its current facility. In 2001, the museum began a major renovation. The year 2004 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of its affiliation with the Smithsonian, and plans are in the works for further renovation of its display space and for a dynamic expansion of its permanent collection and its exhibition program.
The collection of the NMAfA embraces the diverse artistic expressions found throughout Africa. Its collection ranges from ceramics, textiles, furniture, and tools to masks, figures, and musical instruments. The collection currently contains more than 8,400 traditional objects. The mission of the NMAfA also includes African contemporary art. The arts of painting, printmaking, sculpture and other media are well represented by living artists, whose works highlight individual creativity, address global and local art trends, and innovatively transform artistic traditions into modern idioms.