The Brooklyn Museum announced plans to renovate the gallery for its historic African art collection late last week.
With a target completion date of fall 2027, the project will begin starting this summer. Approximately $13 million in funds will be provided by the City of New York, alongside additional support from the Ford Foundation and others. The space will be expanded from its current 6,400-square-foot capacity.
After completion, the African art gallery will join with the Egyptian art gallery to create a cohesive celebration of North African art.
The African art collection will continue to be curated by Ernestine White-Miftu and Annissa Malvoisin. The team has been heralded for research and conservation treatment plans.
“This is more than a new collection gallery—it’s a bold reframing of how African art is understood and celebrated in American museums,” said the director of the Brooklyn Museum, Anne Pasternak, per a statement. “At the same time, this renovation is a major step in our larger vision to revitalize the entire Museum, creating spaces that will allow us to continue to entice and engage a breadth of audiences with distinctive art experiences. Ultimately, this transformation strengthens our role as a civic and cultural anchor in Brooklyn—deepening our relationship with our community and expanding what a museum can be for the public we serve.”
The Brooklyn Museum first began building its African Art collection in 1900. Their first permanent installation, titled “The Rainbow House,” debuted in 1926. The exhibit featured artwork from the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands, cementing the museum’s expansion into displaying non-Western art.
Decades later, in 1991, artist Magdalene Anyango N. Odundo became the first African artist to have a contemporary artwork on display. With a background in arts in Kenya, India and England, she became notable for her clay-making. The first work by Odundo to be displayed at the Brooklyn Museum was a terracotta vase. The piece contained visual references to Nigerian Nupe pottery, Gwari pottery, Cycladic art and San Ildefonso Pueblo art.
As of now, the Brooklyn Museum has several ongoing exhibitions dedicated to African art. These exhibits include “African Ancestors of Egypt and Nubia: From the Green Sahara to the Nile” and “Sakimatwemtwe: A Century of Reflection on the Arts of Africa.”
Previous exhibits included “African Arts-Global Conversations,” an exhibit that examined African arts in correlation to non-African arts. Thirty-three works were on display as part of the exhibit, including an 18th-century Kuba sculpture, Ethiopian Orthodox crosses and a Jollay society mask.
