South side of the Mall at 950 Independence Ave SW; closest Metro stop is Smithsonian. www.si.edu/nmafa
Built in 1987, the curved and domed National Museum of African Art holds more than six thousand sculptures and artifacts, both spiritual and functional, from the numerous tribal cultures of sub-Saharan Africa. The permanent collection ranges from Nigerian carved-ivory cult figures to Zairean mother-and-child fertility fetishes and puppet heads from eastern Mali. Look out for an extraordinary seventeenth-century bronze from the Lower Niger, consisting of a vase swarmed over by eight bizarre chameleons, all cast in one piece. While the museum celebrates the " Art of the Personal Object ," highlighting the grace of everyday objects such as combs and pipes, much of its sculpture is highly abstract, and its influence on the Cubists is obvious.
About half the space is devoted to changing exhibitions on specific regions, and the gift shop sells woven and dyed fabrics and clothes, as well as books and postcards.