2025 is our silver jubilee, being 25 years since our founding as the first Black arts and culture center in the state of New Hampshire. Since 2000, we’ve proudly served the Seacoast and greater New England community as cultural keepers and stewards of African American, Diaspora, and African heritage, staging exciting exhibitions featuring both local- and world-renowned artists, dramatic performances that bring Black history to life, and accessible, color-filled conversations that have educated young and old about the most pressing social issues of our time.

SAACC at 25 invites visitors to walk through the years and remember and newly learn about the immeasurable impact we’ve made in the new Millennium, drawing on our rich past rooted in solidarity among a diverse groups and communities of color that came before us. From our origin stories in this solidarity, to our ongoing role in public education and preserving Portsmouth’s sacred African Burying Ground, to our amazing shows throughout the years.

And because our legacy is this legion, SAACC at 25 will be staged at TWO locations, one at our home center inside the Portsmouth Historical Society and a second at well-appointed Rowland Gallery at the Strawbery Banke Museum. Finally this year, Strawbery Banke will be reopening one of its historic sites, the Penhallow House, to feature the life and times of the family of one of our beloved founders, Geraldine “Jeri” Cousins Palmer.

SAACC at 25 will open at our home center on May 2 with Art Around Town, with an exciting additional exhibit, Crown, curated by Najee Brown of the Multicultural Arts Center on the beauty of Black hair. This will be followed by our Juneteenth (June 19) opening at Strawbery Banke after our annual Freedom Walk from Kittery to the African Burying Ground. All are welcome!