The Anacostia Community Museum engages its local community in research, documentation, programs and exhibitions, addressing issues that resonate with urban communities everywhere. The Smithsonian Campaign will enable the museum to attract scholars, fund treasures and create initiatives to serve citizens, foster new discoveries and elevate its role as a convener and global resource for knowledge about community.

The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum strives to convene conversations and explore ideas that are important to you, and to deepen our collective understanding of communities and society as a whole.

As a global model for community-inclusive museum work, ACM is grounded in the belief that active citizen participation – in the recovery, preservation and presentation of cultural and historical assets – is vital to creating and maintaining a sense of unity and civic engagement.

Recent exhibitions have highlighted pivotal moments in history that speak pointedly to current events, and uncovered untold stories of struggle and empowerment. Museum collections and archives reveal the extraordinary experiences of everyday people.

As we approach our 50th anniversary in September 2017, we look forward to celebrating this milestone with you! A campaign gift today ensures that your Anacostia Community Museum continues to offer enriching educational opportunities and platforms for creative expression, and to facilitate meaningful dialogue and collaboration, well into the next fifty years!

Sincerely,

• 

  Lori D. Yarrish

  Acting Director, Anacostia Community Museum

Global Community
The Anacostia Community Museum, based in Washington, D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood, explores and reflects the history, culture and contemporary issues of its diverse urban community. Through extensive engagement with area citizens, it is a pioneer in fostering the concept of the museum as a tool for social change and a voice for their creative expression and aspirations.

The museum’s standards for best practices in community research have been replicated as far away as Mexico and Senegal. Campaign gifts will strengthen its leadership position in this nascent field and fund technology to enable it to share its work with a wider audience.

Treasures
We seek funds to preserve and restore existing art and artifacts and grow and diversify our collections. New, vibrant exhibitions will explore other communities, which are historically or thematically connected to our local experience.

Leadership
People are the museum’s intellectual engine and key to sustaining a museum that will serve communities of the world. A new curator of urban history and culture will add critical experience in urban studies, community development and social justice.

Programs and Research
Education programs at the Anacostia Community Museum are multidisciplinary in their design and are developed to engage audiences ranging in age and level of prior knowledge. From lectures and workshops to community forums and targeted outreach programming, ACM seeks to produce meaningful learning and engagement experiences.

The Community Documentation Initiative is at the heart of everything the museum does. New funding will enable us to share data from our research on the local and economic life of neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River and allow us to sponsor a conference in community research.