Camille Giraud Akeju is American curator and educator. She is the former director of the Anacostia Community Museum in Washington, D.C. [1]
Camille Akeju grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. [2] She attended college in Jacksonville University, in 1968, and was one of six students to be integrated in the dorms. She ended up leaving Jacksonville and attended Howard University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in art education, a minor in printmaking, and her master's degree in art history. While at Howard, she would intern at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.
After graduation, Akeju worked briefly as professor at Fisk University. She married a fellow professor, who was born in Nigeria. The couple would live in Nigeria for two years and then move back to Mount Vernon. Upon their return, she started working at the Association of Community-Based Artists of Westchester Center for the Arts. Akeju then worked, for seven years, at the Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center in the Bronx. She was the president and CEO of the Harlem School of the Arts for six years. She also worked at the New York Transit Museum. [2] In 2006, she became the director of the Anacostia Community Museum. [3]
The Anacostia Community Museum is a community museum in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It is one of twenty museums under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution and was the first federally funded community museum in the United States. The museum, founded in 1967, was created with the intention to bring aspects of the Smithsonian museums, located on the National Mall, to the Anacostia neighborhood, with the hope that community members from the neighborhood would visit the main Smithsonian museums. It became federally funded in 1970 and focuses on the community in and around Anacostia in its exhibitions. This museum also houses a library.
Mount Vernon is a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, located immediately north of the city's downtown. It is named for George Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Virginia, as the site of the city's Washington Monument.
Johnnetta Betsch Cole is an American anthropologist, educator, museum director, and college president. Cole was the first female African-American president of Spelman College, a historically black college, serving from 1987 to 1997. She was president of Bennett College from 2002 to 2007. During 2009–2017 she was Director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art. Cole served as the national chair and 7th president for the National Council of Negro Women from 2018 to 2022.
David C. Driskell was an American artist, scholar and curator recognized for his work in establishing African-American Art as a distinct field of study. In his lifetime, Driskell was cited as one of the world's leading authorities on the subject of African-American Art. Driskell held the title of Distinguished University Professor of Art Emeritus at the University of Maryland, College Park. The David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, is named in his honor.
Nellie May Quander was an incorporator and the first international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. As president for several years, she helped expand the sorority and further its support of African-American women at colleges and in communities. The sorority established a scholarship endowment in her name. The legacy of the sorority has continued to generate social capital for over 112 years.
Georgette Seabrooke, was an American muralist, artist, illustrator, art therapist, non-profit chief executive and educator. She is best known for her 1936 mural, Recreation in Harlem at Harlem Hospital in New York City, which was restored and put on public display in 2012 after being hidden from view for many years.
Camille Josephine Billops was an African-American sculptor, filmmaker, archivist, printmaker, and educator.
John Robert Edward Kinard was an American social activist, pastor, and museum director. He is best known as the director of the Anacostia Museum, a small community museum founded by the Smithsonian Institution in 1967. Kinard was the museum's first director, and remained in the post until his death. The Washington Post said Kinard was "a passionate believer in the idea that the well-being of black people depends on having a record of their past". Noted British archeologist and museologist Sir Kenneth Hudson said Kinard "developed the Anacostia Museum into one of the small number of museums of influence in the world."
Louise Daniel Hutchinson was an American historian. She was the former Director of the Research at the Anacostia Community Museum. Growing up in Washington, D.C., Hutchinson was exposed to the Civil Rights Movement and the importance of community. Hutchinson worked closely with the African American community of Washington, D.C., and staff at the Smithsonian Institution to help build the Anacostia Community Museum. She was a historian of the Anacostia community.
Portia James was an American curator and historian. A specialist in African-American material culture, she worked as the cultural resources manager of the Anacostia Community Museum.
Martha Jackson Jarvis is an American artist known for her mixed-media installations that explore aspects of African, African American, and Native American spirituality, ecological concerns, and the role of women in preserving indigenous cultures. Her installations are composed using a variety of natural materials including terracotta, sand, copper, recycled stone, glass, wood and coal. Her sculptures and installations are often site-specific, designed to interact with their surroundings and create a sense of place. Her works often focus on the history and culture of African Americans in the southern United States. In her exhibition at the Corcoran, Jarvis featured over 100 big collard green leaves, numerous carp and a live Potomac catfish.
Erika Ranee Cosby is an American painter. She is the daughter of philanthropist Camille Cosby and comedian Bill Cosby.
Barbara Earl Thomas is an American visual artist, writer, and arts administrator based in Seattle.
Edith T. Martin is an American artist and museum professional.
Lilian Thomas Burwell is a Washington, DC sculptor and painter whose shaped paintings often blur the line between the two disciplines. Her artwork uses abstraction to create a personal response to the natural world.
Georgia Mills Jessup was an American painter, sculptor, ceramicist, muralist, and collage artist.
Zora Martin-Felton was an American museum director and curator. She established the education department at the Anacostia Community Museum, which is a museum in the Smithsonian Institution and worked as Director of Education from 1967 to 1995.
Carol Borchert Cadou is an American museum curator and administrator who serves as executive director of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America, running the society's headquarters at Dumbarton House in Washington, D.C.
Joy Ford Austin is a Guyanese-American non-profit executive, philanthropist, humanitarian, and arts patron. She was the director of the African American Museums Association, which she helped found in 1980, and worked with institutions to preserve African-American culture and history. From 2000 to 2020, Austin served as the executive director of Humanities DC, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since stepping down as executive director of Humanities DC, she has served as the president of AustinFord Associates and as the chief executive officer of Joy Ford Austin Arts and Humanities Advocacy.
Joyce Wellman is an American artist who specializes in painting and printmaking. Born in Brooklyn, she attended community college before earning a degree at the City College of New York. She would later earn two master's degree, one in education and one in art. She initially focused on printmaking, but later turned her focus to painting. She briefly worked as a teacher before spending a few years on sabbatical. During that time she worked on her art portfolio, receiving help by artists including Valerie Maynard.