The Anacostia Community Museum will be closed from January 8, 2024-March 22, 2024. We will reopen on Saturday, March 23, 2024 with our next exhibition, A Bold and Beautiful Vision: A Century of Black Arts Education in Washington, DC,1900-2000. We hope you will join us! 

Welcome

The Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum documents and preserves communities’ memories, struggles, and successes, and offers a platform where diverse voices and cultures can be heard.

The Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum (ACM) aspires to illuminate and share the untold, and often overlooked stories of people furthest from opportunity in the Greater Washington D.C. region. Our mission is to tell stories of everyday people making impactful changes, who use their collective power to tackle complex issues and advance a more equitable future for all. While local in nature, these stories are relevant to people and communities across our nation.

Visitors to the museum can expect to leave more informed and inspired to effect change in their own communities. At ACM, we seek to learn, examine, and interrogate the social, economic, and environmental issues confronting the D.C. region; to share all aspects of a vibrant local history; and to celebrate local creativity. We do this with and alongside others and through immersive and thought-provoking experiences, inclusive of multiple perspectives. We inspire people to see that change is possible in the face of adverse circumstances, by telling the stories of those who have lived and achieved it. By connecting the past to the present, our work seeks to engage more of us to act and influence the world around us.

At ACM, we celebrate stories of resiliency, joy, and strength. Our hope is to affirm, uplift, and inspire those who visit us to translate their ideas into action. We invite you to join us in our collective work to build a more equitable future for all.

Video file

(Anacostia Community Museum logo on screen, laid over cars driving on a bridge). 

Male Voice Over: 

I know a place - tucked away in historic Anacostia and telling the story of a people, place, and future still being written.   

This is a place for seekers - people who see the world differently and know history, art, and the human bond are what make it go round. 

This is a place of action - a safe space where great minds go to learn, build, and launch strategies that change minds, policies, and lives for the better.  

This is a place of pride - pride in the heritage, ancestors, and neighborhoods that make us all who we are.   

This is a home, sitting on a hill and living in the hearts of many.  

A home of true connection and inspiration that travels far beyond our walls.  

A home for love, big ideas, and the people. 

This is us. This is the Anacostia Community Museum. 

(ACM logo on screen accompanied by the text “Powered by the people”) 

Featured Events at ACM

The museum offers a variety of events for audiences of all ages. All programs are free of charge and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

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