About the Community Curation Program

The Community Curation Program is an innovative digital first initiative from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture supported by the Robert Frederick Smith Fund Explore Your Family History Center.

The program’s goal is to bridge generational divides by bringing online services to communities across the country that support the digitization, preservation, and sharing of our stories.

The Museum invites you to collect, digitize, and share your stories of the people, places, and organizations that form our communities. To begin, create your account and review our open_in_new submission guidelines for helpful tips on digitizing photos, documents, or videos and creating your first story to share with our online community.

Explore our online community collection of stories to share in the rich tradition of African American storytelling. You’ll also find community connections that bring together generations of stories from historic African American communities, organizations, and institutions.

The Community Curation Program also hosts hands-on workshops and community digitization events throughout the year. Learn more about when upcoming community curation events are happening at the Museum and in cities throughout the country by visiting the open_in_new Community Curation Programs page on the Museum’s website.