The Philadelphia Museum of Art has been a keystone of Philadelphian culture since its founding in 1876, making it one of the oldest public art museums in the United States. Now, the museum is looking to broaden Philadelphia’s art and historical culture scene by including a permanent center for African art.

PMoA’s goal for the newly-minted Brind Center for African and African Diasporic Arts is to provide an internationally renowned stage for art across African culture, which tends to fall to the wayside, according to the center’s recently-appointed curator, Imani Roach.

Roach has been a resident of Philadelphia since 2012 and has called the PMoA her home museum over the past decade. During her time in Philadelphia, she has been an educator at universities including the University of Pennsylvania and the now-closed University of the Arts before starting in research and curation of African art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

“My background is in education,” says Roach. “I was teaching at the university level before I started museum work and that was always the way that I shaped my curriculum.”

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