Smithsonian's 'African/American' Exhibition Reframes Black Artistic Legacy in DC

The 'African/American' exhibition challenges how the United States has historically recognized — and erased — Black artistic achievement. By centering African American artists, makers, and cultural contributors, the exhibition argues that Black creativity is not a footnote to American art history but its very foundation. That argument lands with particular force in Washington, DC, where the institutions that define American culture sit within miles of the neighborhoods that built it.

Key Takeaways

• The 'African/American' exhibition reframes Black artists as central, not supplemental, to American creative history.
• Bowdoin College's student newspaper, The Bowdoin Orient, covered the exhibition's intellectual and emotional resonance on campus — reflecting a national conversation reaching beyond DC.
• Washington DC's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) on the National Mall remains the country's most significant institutional home for this dialogue.
• Black artists from the DC Metro area — including those connected to Howard University — are central figures in the longer arc of African American artistic achievement the exhibition traces.
• The exhibition's title — with its deliberate slash — signals tension: African and American, never fully one or the other, always negotiating both.

The Slash That Says Everything: Understanding the Exhibition's Core Argument

That punctuation mark — the forward slash in African/American — is doing serious work. It refuses the hyphen's polite compromise. It holds two identities in productive friction, acknowledging that Black Americans have always had to navigate a dual consciousness that W.E.B. Du Bois named in 1903 and that artists, from Romare Bearden to Kara Walker to Amy Sherald, have been rendering in visual form ever since.

The exhibition's intellectual ambition is matched by its emotional weight. Viewers — whether at a college museum in Brunswick, Maine, or standing on the National Mall — are asked to sit with discomfort, joy, grief, and pride simultaneously. That is, arguably, the most honest way to tell the story of Black life in America.

According to the Smithsonian Institution, the NMAAHC has welcomed millions of visitors since opening in 2016, making it one of the most visited museums in the United States. The demand for exhibitions that center Black experience has only intensified — and African/American answers that demand without apology.

For DC readers tracking the city's cultural institutions, this exhibition sits within a broader moment. The capital's museums are under increasing pressure — from Congress, from communities, from artists themselves — to move beyond token representation toward genuine curatorial transformation. African/American represents what that transformation can look like when institutions commit to it fully. Follow our ongoing coverage in the Culture section.

Howard University's Shadow — and Spotlight — Over Black American Art

No serious conversation about African American artistic achievement is complete without Howard University in Northeast DC. The university's Gallery of Art holds one of the most significant collections of African American art in the world, including works by Lois Mailou Jones, who taught at Howard for nearly four decades and whose paintings synthesized African visual traditions with European modernism decades before that synthesis became fashionable in mainstream art circles.

Howard's legacy runs through exhibitions like African/American whether or not the institution's name appears on the wall labels. The Harlem Renaissance — whose artists Aaron Douglas, Meta Warrick Fuller, and Augusta Savage are foundational to any survey of Black American art — drew intellectual energy from Howard's faculty and graduates. The through-line from that moment to contemporary artists like Theaster Gates and Kehinde Wiley is direct.

Howard University's research resources on African American art remain among the most comprehensive in the country, drawing scholars, curators, and artists to the Petworth-adjacent campus year-round. For DC's creative community, Howard is not just a university — it is an archive, a proving ground, and a living institution of Black excellence. Explore our full guide at Howard & HBCU DC Guide.

Why Bowdoin Is Talking About This — and Why DC Should Pay Attention

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The fact that The Bowdoin Orient, the student newspaper of a small liberal arts college in coastal Maine, devoted coverage to African/American and its themes is itself a data point. It signals that the conversation Black artists and scholars have been forcing for generations has moved — finally, undeniably — into mainstream cultural discourse across the country, not just in majority-Black cities or HBCU corridors.

Bowdoin's Museum of Art has a history of punching above its institutional weight class when it comes to American art. Its collection includes works by Winslow Homer and, increasingly, artists whose names were systematically excluded from the canon Homer occupied. That the campus paper is now reflecting on what it means to center African American achievement in that context is exactly the kind of institutional reckoning that exhibitions like African/American are designed to provoke.

Washington DC's cultural institutions would do well to watch what happens when smaller institutions take this kind of risk. The Phillips Collection in Dupont Circle, the Anacostia Community Museum in Southeast, and the National Portrait Gallery on F Street NW have all, at various points, led rather than followed on questions of Black artistic representation. The competitive pressure — cultural, not commercial — keeps all of them sharper. See how these institutions rank in our DC Power Index.

Why This Matters in Washington

Washington DC is simultaneously the seat of American political power and one of the Blackest major cities in the country. That tension is encoded into the city's geography — from the federal monuments on the Mall to the go-go music that has played on U Street NW for decades, from the marble corridors of Capitol Hill to the murals covering buildings in Columbia Heights and Congress Heights.

When an exhibition like African/American asks who gets to be an artist, who gets to be American, and who gets to be both, it is asking questions that DC residents navigate every single day. The city's Black community did not wait for institutional validation to build a rich artistic culture — but exhibitions that provide that validation matter, because they shift what gets funded, what gets taught, and what gets preserved.

According to the National Endowment for the Arts, African American artists remain underrepresented in major museum collections relative to their contributions to American art history — a gap that exhibitions like African/American directly confront. In a city where the NEA's budget is decided by Congress, that data point is not abstract. It is political. Track the power dynamics shaping DC's cultural funding in our DC Politics Guide.

The Artists Who Built This Conversation

Any exhibition under the African/American banner stands on the shoulders of artists who fought for decades to have their work taken seriously on its own terms. Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series — now split between the Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection — documented the Great Migration in 60 panels of tempera paint in 1941. Elizabeth Catlett carved Black womanhood into linoleum and bronze when American institutions would barely acknowledge she existed.

Contemporary artists carry that tradition forward. Amy Sherald, who painted Michelle Obama's official portrait now hanging in the National Portrait Gallery, trained partly in Baltimore and built her career while DC watched. Titus Kaphar tears and folds paintings to interrogate which histories get preserved and which get erased. These are not peripheral figures in American art — they are among its most significant voices, and exhibitions like African/American make that case with evidence.

The DC art world — anchored by institutions like the NMAAHC, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and community galleries from Shaw to Anacostia — has a responsibility to keep that case alive between the blockbuster shows. The question is whether the city's cultural institutions rise to it consistently, not just when a landmark exhibition provides cover. Discover which venues are leading the charge in our Best of DC guide.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the 'African/American' exhibition about?

African/American is an exhibition examining Black artistic achievement and the dual identity of African Americans — exploring how Black artists have shaped American culture while simultaneously navigating exclusion from the institutions that define it. The title's forward slash signals the tension between two identities never fully reconciled.

Where can I see exhibitions on Black American art in Washington DC?

Washington DC offers several world-class venues for African American art, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Phillips Collection in Dupont Circle, and the Anacostia Community Museum in Southeast DC.

What is Howard University's role in African American art history?

Howard University in Northeast DC is one of the most important institutions in African American art history. Its Gallery of Art holds a major collection of Black American art, and faculty like Lois Mailou Jones helped define the field. Howard's influence runs through the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and contemporary practice.

Why is Amy Sherald significant to DC's art world?

Amy Sherald painted Michelle Obama's official portrait, now on permanent display at the National Portrait Gallery on F Street NW in DC. Sherald's work — which depicts Black subjects in muted, grayscale skin tones set against vivid backgrounds — has become one of the most recognized bodies of work in contemporary American art.

How does DC's Black population shape its cultural institutions?

Washington DC has historically been one of the most significant Black cultural capitals in the United States. From the U Street corridor's jazz legacy to Howard University's intellectual tradition, the city's Black community has shaped its museums, galleries, music venues, and public art — often independent of, and sometimes in spite of, federal institutional support.

What does the National Endowment for the Arts say about Black artist representation?

According to NEA research, African American artists remain underrepresented in major museum collections relative to their documented contributions to American art history. This institutional gap is one that exhibitions like African/American directly challenge — and in Washington DC, where the NEA's budget is set by Congress, the political and cultural stakes are intertwined.

The bottom line: African/American is more than an exhibition title — it is a thesis, a provocation, and an overdue correction to a canon that has spent centuries minimizing Black artistic genius. From the Bowdoin campus to the National Mall, the conversation it has sparked reflects a cultural reckoning that Washington DC, as the nation's capital and one of its great Black cities, is uniquely positioned to lead. The artists are ready. The audiences are ready. The question now is whether the institutions — in DC and beyond — will match their ambition.

What to Watch Next: Keep an eye on the NMAAHC's upcoming programming calendar, Howard University Gallery of Art's 2026 exhibition schedule, and the Phillips Collection's continued expansion of its African American holdings. As federal arts funding debates heat up on Capitol Hill, the future of these institutions — and the artists they champion — will be decided in the same building that has always decided what America values. Follow the politics at WDCM's DC Politics Guide and track the power players shaping DC culture at our DC Power Players Index.

Reporting drawn from: The Bowdoin Orient. Washington DC Magazine provides original analysis, DC-specific context, and editorial perspective beyond the source material.This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by WDCM editorial staff. Washington DC Magazine is committed to accuracy, transparency, and editorial integrity. If you believe any information in this article requires correction, please contact editor@washingtondcmagazine.com.