Anacostia Community Museum Announces Spring and Summer Programs

The Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum welcomes the start of warmer seasons with free art workshops, weekly farm stands and community-building events for visitors of all ages.

“As we all prepare to honor our planet, our families and our heritage, the Anacostia Community Museum looks forward to engaging with our community inside and outside the museum walls,” said Melanie Adams, the museum’s Roger Ferguson and Annette Nazareth Director. “Whether it’s through urban gardening workshops on Earth Day or finding joy through music at our Juneteenth performances, we hope to create moments of connection and inspiration.”

Art and Community Workshops

This growing season, participants can connect with nature in the free, in-person series “Growing Community.” Each workshop, 10 a.m. to noon, will offer a unique experience:

• Saturday, April 26: Garden Tour—a walking tour of three Smithsonian gardens on the National Mall, co-hosted with Smithsonian Gardens
• Saturday, May 10: Connecting the Past—examines gardening practices over the decades in the mid-Atlantic region and beyond
• Saturday, May 31: Legacies in Gardening—participants can discuss gardening methods with National Museum of the American Indian horticulturist Christine Price-Abelow
• Saturday, June 14: Composting—presents the basics and best practices for composting
• Saturday, June 28: ACM – The Past, Present, and Future—explores the gardening legacies at the museum and how plants improve the community

The counterpart youth workshop series “Growing Community: Garden Friends” will introduce young learners and their caretakers to gardening on the last Saturday of each month in May, June and July. Young learners will explore local trails and gather recycled materials for building projects, plant and transfer seeds, and decorate their own pots.

For visitors looking to get creative indoors, drop-in arts and crafts workshops will be offered twice monthly in April and May. The whole family can take part in paper crafts like butterfly suncatchers, animal-themed hat making, flower cards and posters, and painted eyewear. Each event is free; more information is on the museum’s website.

Farm Stand

The FRESHFARM ACM Farm Stand returns for the summer to the outdoor plaza of the museum every Saturday from 10 a.m.–2 p.m., April 19–Nov. 22. This is the only direct-to-consumer farm stand in Washington, D.C.’s Ward 8, transforming and expanding access to local food and produce.

Special Events

Special programs will celebrate Earth Day, Mother’s Day and Juneteenth:

• Saturday, April 19, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.: Earth Day: A Day Unplugged will offer a variety of educational activities, including a tree-planting ceremony with a sapling to take home (for the first 100 participants), an urban gardening workshop with Derek Thomas to learn soil and gardening basics, and the kickoff of the seasonal FRESHFARM ACM Farm Stand with local produce and light snacks.
• Saturday, May 10, noon–4 p.m.: the Mother’s Day Celebration: A Tribute to Love and Nurture will offer appreciation to all those who nurture the people around them. The event will have a community toast to share a collective moment of gratitude, a sound-bath session to relieve stress and a sand-blending ceremony to represent the strength of motherly love.
• Thursday, June 19, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.: the museum’s annual Juneteenth Celebration will have an interactive community mural, Double Dutch, an urban gardening workshop and performances by local musicians.

Registration details will be shared closer to the events, and a full schedule of programming is on the museum’s website.

Exhibition

Visitors can cool off inside by walking through the museum’s current exhibition, "A Bold and Beautiful Vision: A Century of Black Arts Education in Washington, DC, 1900–2000,” exploring  local luminaries like Elizabeth Catlett, Alma Thomas and David Driskell who taught and were taught in Washington’s educational institutions—from small community centers to university classrooms.

About the Anacostia Community Museum

Founded in 1967, the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum shares the untold and often overlooked stories of communities furthest from opportunity in the greater Washington, D.C., region. In celebrating stories of resiliency, joy and strength, the museum inspires those who visit to translate their ideas into action. The museum is open 10 a.m.–5 p.m. every day except Dec. 25. For more information about the museum, visit anacostia.si.edu or follow the museum on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

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SI-86-2025