The Smithsonian Finally Gave the National Museum of the American Latino a Permanent Address on the National Mall

National Museum of the American Latino BELatina Latinx
Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Latino Center.

The Smithsonian Board of Regents announced on August 31st that the National Museum of the American Latino will be housed in the Arts and Industries Building at 900 Jefferson Drive SW, on the National Mall next to the Smithsonian Castle. The decision ends years of planning and searching for a permanent location and places one of the most anticipated cultural institutions in the country at the physical and symbolic center of American public life. No opening date has been announced, as the Smithsonian will first need to renovate and adapt the historic building for its new purpose, but the selection of the site is itself a milestone that the Latino community has been working toward for decades.

The choice of the Arts and Industries Building is worth understanding in context. The building opened in 1881 as the Smithsonian’s first U.S. National Museum and played a central role in the development of the institution’s museum system across more than a century of American history. The decision to transform it into the permanent home of the Latino museum rather than pursuing new construction on National Park Service land allows the Smithsonian to use a building it already owns while giving the museum one of the most storied addresses in Washington.

Decades of Advocacy Led to This Announcement and the Latino Community Knows Exactly What It Cost

The National Museum of the American Latino has been in the making for years, its path shaped by funding battles, site searches and the broader political conversations about whose history deserves a place on the National Mall. The Molina Family Latino Gallery inside the National Museum of American History opened in 2022 as a preview of what the permanent institution will eventually offer, showcasing exhibitions exploring Latino history, culture and contributions to the United States. That gallery has served as a placeholder for something the community has long understood it deserved, and the announcement of the Arts and Industries Building as the permanent home transforms the question of whether the museum will exist into the question of when it will open.

Latino people represent one of the largest and fastest-growing populations in the United States, with contributions to American history, culture, labor, art and civic life that span centuries and cut across every region of the country. The absence of a dedicated Smithsonian institution telling that story on the National Mall has been a conspicuous gap in a museum system that includes dedicated institutions for American history, natural history, African American history and culture and the American Indian. The selection of the Arts and Industries Building closes that gap in institutional terms, even as the renovation work and exhibition planning that must precede an opening date remain ahead.

A Building on the National Mall Sends a Message That No Press Release Could

The Smithsonian has described the museum’s mission as exploring the history, art, culture and contributions of Latinos in the United States, presenting those stories as part of the larger American experience rather than as a separate or peripheral thread. The permanent exhibitions have not yet been announced, and visitors will have to wait to see how the Arts and Industries Building will be transformed to serve that mission, but the framework established by the Molina Family Latino Gallery offers some indication of the approach: historical objects, personal stories, multimedia experiences and exhibitions exploring the diverse experiences of Latino communities across generations and geographies.

The location on the National Mall carries a meaning that goes past real estate. The Mall is where the country places the institutions it considers essential to understanding what America is and where it comes from, and the presence of a Latino museum in that space sends a message about belonging and recognition that the community has been waiting to receive through an official channel for a very long time. The Arts and Industries Building, with its own deep history within the Smithsonian system, is a fitting home for a museum that will spend its existence arguing that Latino history is American history, inseparable from the story the country tells about itself.

The Address Is Confirmed and the Molina Family Latino Gallery Is Where You Go Until the Doors Open

The renovation of the Arts and Industries Building will take time, and the Smithsonian has not provided a timeline for the process or a projected opening date. In the meantime, visitors to Washington can experience the Molina Family Latino Gallery at the National Museum of American History, which offers a curated introduction to the stories the permanent museum will eventually tell at a much larger scale. The gallery represents years of curatorial work and community engagement that will inform the permanent institution, making it worth visiting both for its own merits and as a preview of what is coming.

The announcement of August 31st is a beginning rather than a conclusion, and the work of building the National Museum of the American Latino into the institution the community deserves is still ahead. The address is now confirmed. The building has been chosen. The rest is a matter of time, resources and the sustained attention of a community that has earned the right to see this through to its opening day.

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