The Museum of African Art — Attraction in City of Belgrade

The Museum of African Art is the first and only museum in the region entirely dedicated to the cultures and arts of the African continent. According to specialists in the field, objects in the Belgrade Museum form a representative collection of African art.

The Permanent Display is based on significant examples of, primarily West African art and includes selected objects from the collection formed by the founders of the Museum – Veda Zagorac and dr Zdravko Pečar. Besides the Permanent Display, through Temporary Exhibitions of traditional African artefacts, the Museum also conducts its research on, and presents through different topical analyses, other cultural areas of Africa: Ethiopia, the Maghreb, Central and South Africa. The possibility for curators to expand their field of research outside the principal collections is in part directly linked to the collaboration which has over the years developed with local and international collectors and benefactors.

An important aspect of Museum work is publishing, which is based on the regular publication of exhibition catalogues, monographs, texts and articles by African Studies experts and professionals, as well as the “AFRIKA: Studies in Art and Culture” journal.

Another field of work for the Museum are visiting exhibitions: both hosting and travelling outside the MAA space into new display spaces and among “new” museum visitors present a challenge and a reason to use every possible chance to organise exhibitions and programs in the country and abroad.

Besides exhibitions, the presentation of the cultural heritage of Africa is achieved at the Museum through popular programs such as the Afro Festival, AFRAM and Coloured World which, through lectures, film screenings, art and music workshops, thematic evenings and concerts – expose the richness of African creativity.

For forty years this institution has made a significant contribution to promoting and fostering cultural relations and encouraging the principles of multiculturalism and cultural diversity. Endorsing the importance of African and non-European cultural and artistic heritage in general is the foundation upon which the overall work of the Museum of African Art in...

Museum of African Art: A Unique personal collection.

I had long been intrigued by the distinctive roof structure of this museum, visible during my strolls around the neighborhood. Finally, I had the opportunity to visit.

While the exterior architecture is undoubtedly eye-catching, the museum's interior design falls short of expectations. The walls are adorned with a greenish hue that evokes a sense of bygone decades, and the overall design fails to convey the essence of African architecture.

Contrary to my initial expectations, the museum's collection primarily comprises masks, staffs, miniature stools, and musical instruments from a few African tribes and neighboring countries. While the collection is extensive and the artifacts are crafted in a unified style using similar types of wood and shells (possibly cowrie shells), the lack of detailed descriptions and the complexity of understanding the specificities of the tribes and their names make it challenging to retain much from the visit.

Despite these shortcomings, the museum is worth a visit for its unique architectural design. The entrance fee...

Eh, I'd like to be able to say it's fine and interesting museum, but it's not. A huge collection of ritual masks and wooden sculptures, but that's all. Descriptions are almost non-descriptive, you can't learn a thing about those items, their personal history, their purpose etc.

There is almost no interaction with the history, just the lines of items under the glass. I would like to know more about the rituals, the amulets, the people who carved them, but museum has only the small snippets with names of items attached to them and that's all. That's sad.

Please look how the archaeologic or culture museums works in Israel, in Turkey, in the UK...

It's more like a gallery. You can see about a hundred of art (or religious) objects. And that's all. You can't learn much or find out what's the difference of one item from the other and you can't discuss the...