National Museum of African Art

The National Museum of African Art is the only US national art museum devoted exclusively to the visual cultures of Africa. Founded in 1964 in a Capitol Hill row house by Warren M. Robbins, a former aide to Eleanor Roosevelt, it joined the Smithsonian Institution in 1979 and moved in 1987 into its present underground building in the S. Dillon Ripley Center on the National Mall, the so-called Quadrangle behind the Smithsonian Castle. Three round tapering pavilions with domed roofs mark the entrance above ground; the galleries lie three storeys below. The collection holds around 12,000 objects spanning the African continent, from Benin bronze plaques and Nok terracotta figures to wooden masks from Mali and the DR Congo and contemporary works by Yinka Shonibare and El Anatsui. Admission is free.