Art and AP African American History traveled to D.C.’s Smithsonian museums on March 3, 2025.
The AP African American History students went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Opening on September 24, 2016, it became the 19th Smithsonian Museum. With over 40,000 artifacts it is the “only national museum devoted
exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture,” according to its website.
They also went to the National Museum of African Art. Founded in 1964, it is “the only national museum in the United States dedicated to the collection, exhibition, conservation, and study of the arts of Africa,” maintained the website. It is in a townhouse that had been the home of Frederick Douglass working in “the interest of promoting cross-cultural communication [by] promot[ing] and represent[ing] the rich artistic practices of Africa.”
With the museums’ alignment to the AP curriculum, it gives the students “a more hands approach to viewing these powerful historical exhibits, [offering] rich opportunities for students to learn, be inquisitive and develop a greater understanding of the countless contributions made by African Americans throughout history,” related History teacher Mr. Andrew Austing.
Austing’s favorite exhibit of the National Musuem of African American History and Culture was ‘Musical Crosswords’ featuring a “timeline covering the span of music from early colonial history up through the modern era [that was] powerful and informative,” explained Austing. “First, it demonstrates so profoundly, the amazing contributions African Americans have made in every single genre of music, including many genres of which they created and developed. Second, each [section] provide[d] costumes, instruments, and music to accompany the displays, making the entire room an unbelievable immersive experience. They even have the Mothership from Parliament Funkadelic and Chuck Berry’s Red Eldorado Cadillac!”
The art students went to the National Gallery of Art. Dedicated on March 17, 1941, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it hosts an estimated 141,000 paintings drawings, prints, photographs, sculptures, decorative arts, and new media dating from the Middle Ages to present. “The collection […] is vast,” affirmed art teacher Mrs. Kathryn Humphrey, “There is something for everyone to enjoy, be inspired by. [… There are] so many beautiful pieces.”
Humphrey likes, “to take [the art] students to D.C. every year.” There is a rotation between the National Gallery and the other Smithsonian art museums.
There is plenty to enjoy at the National Gallery. Mitch McEvoy, Advanced 3-D and Advanced Photography student, liked “the hyperfocused and insanely detailed painting from way back” while Jordyn Brown, 3-D and AP Painting student, loved “seeing all the creative uses of realism.”
Some of its more famous works include:
- “Ginevra de’Benci” by Leonardo da Vinci (his only work in the Americas and 1 of 3 surviving portraits of women)
- “The Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial” by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (claimed to be the greatest American sculpture of the 19th century and commemorates one of the first African American Civil War regiments)
- Copy of “The Thinker” by Auguste Rodin
- Multiple pieces by Claude Monet
- Multiple pieces by Pablo Picasso
- ‘The Voyage of Life’ series by Thomas Cole
- A room of pieces by Alexander Calder (a favorite of Mrs. Humphrey)
The museum is featuring a temporary exhibition called “The 70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography” from October 6, 2024- April 6, 2025. The collection spotlights about 100 works by more than 80 artists. Through the US’s turmoil of the 1970s formed the backdrop for a revolution within documentary photography as activism, awareness, and acceptance of diversity allowing for underrepresented voices such as African Americans, the drag community, and exotic dancers to have their perspective. As a time of artistic experimentation, it sparked the reimaging look of documentary photography.