Latino museum finds a home as fight for National Mall space heats up
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The Smithsonian's new National Museum of the American Latino will take over the historic Arts and Industries building on the National Mall. Photo: Courtesy Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian's long-awaited National Museum of the American Latino has a permanent home: the historic Arts and Industries Building on the National Mall.
Why it matters: Repurposing an existing Smithsonian building allows the museum to move forward without waiting for Congress to approve new construction on protected National Mall land.
State of play: The Smithsonian Board of Regents voted this week to put the museum in the 145-year-old building next to the Smithsonian Castle, reversing its 2022 recommendation to construct a new museum near the Washington Monument, the Washington Post first reported.
- Congress authorized the museum in 2020 but had yet to approve either of the Smithsonian's preferred sites, which sit in an area where new construction is restricted.
- The Smithsonian already owns Arts and Industries, allowing the Regents to designate it as the museum's home without additional legislation, per the Post.
Zoom in: The 258,000-square-foot redbrick building opened in 1881 as the country's first U.S. national museum and acted as an incubator for several Smithsonian collections.
- The building closed in 2004 because of structural problems and later underwent a nearly 12-year, $55 million stabilization project, according to the Post.
- It most recently reopened for America's 250th birthday events and is slated to close again, along with the Smithsonian Castle, on Sept. 7.
What they're saying: Latino museum founding director Jorge Zamanillo called the decision "a major milestone in a dream and effort of decades in the making."
- Putting the museum in Arts and Industries "places the U.S. Latino story at the heart of the National Mall and the American story," he said in a statement shared with Axios.
The big picture: The decision puts the Latino museum on a different trajectory from the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, whose permanent home remains in limbo.
- Smithsonian initially pursued sites for the two museums in tandem.
- But legislation needed to advance a new women's museum building stalled in Congress this spring. Smithsonian officials have said that museum could still be a decade or more away.
Zoom out: The fight over where — and what — to build comes as the National Mall's limited real estate is increasingly coveted.
- The Trump administration is pursuing a new Garden of Heroes near the Lincoln Memorial, while other long-planned memorials are also jockeying for space.
- Critics of adding more buildings argue the Mall is already essentially complete. In a June Washington Post op-ed, conservative architecture activist Justin Shubow argued both museums should instead be built on the site of the old Energy Department headquarters.
Women's museum interim director Melanie Adams told Axios earlier this summer that the Mall carries symbolic weight:
- "There's a reason why monuments to Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and MLK are all on the National Mall," she said. "A women's museum deserves that same place."
In the meantime, both new Smithsonian museums have found ways to tell their stories without permanent buildings.
- The Latino museum operates a gallery inside the National Museum of American History, while the women's museum recently brought an augmented-reality exhibition directly onto the Mall and is planning traveling exhibits.
What's next: The Smithsonian isn't yet sharing a timeline for opening the Latino museum, the expected cost of transforming Arts and Industries or details of the renovation.
- The Regents said Monday's designation "concludes the site-selection process" for the museum.