Our museum is housed in the historic Abbotsford Mansion built circa. l870. It is set on a magnificent and spacious green amid ancient Oak and Corkwood trees. Eternal Presence by John Wilson, a monumental bronze head rises on a nearby knoll adjacent to an outcropping of Puddingstone boulders, the rocks for which Roxbury is named. Abbotsford, originally named Oak Bend, is the best example of Victorian High Gothic domestic architecture in Boston and is on the National Historic Register.

The museum is dedicated to fostering the visual arts heritage of black people worldwide, and features both a changing schedule of exhibitions and a permanent display of Nubian art. "Aspelta, a Nubian King's Burial Chamber" presents nearly fifty 2600 year old objects from the 25th or Nubian Dynasty, and is anchored by a full scale accurate recreation of the third room of King Aspelta's burial suite.

Changing exhibitions may be drawn from historical or contemporary art from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin and South America as well as from within the United States. Altogether, the museum offers a rich counterpoint of the contemporary and the historical, the local and the national, and indeed, the international as well.

Exhibitions are complemented by frequent public discussions and programs drawn from the performing arts.

The Museum is a division of the National Center of Afro-American Artists that was founded by Elma Lewis in l968. It has presented exhibitions since l970.