Museum Mile Festival 2025

Museum Mile Festival 2025

Tuesday, June 10th, 2025 | 6:00PM – 9:00PM

Free Entry for All

Join us for the 47th annual Museum Mile Festival, a celebration of FREE art and culture at New York City cultural institutions along Fifth Avenue’s Museum Mile. 

FEATURING...

I. Between Nostalgia & Dreams by Yusuf Ahmed

The Africa Center welcomes attendees to explore the photography exhibition on view -  Between Nostalgia & Dreams, by Yusuf Ahmed. In this poignant exhibition, Ethiopian-American photographer Yusuf Ahmed delves into the intricate dance between memory and erasure, asking: What endures, and what fades? Inviting frinds and acquaintances with immigrant identities to respond to a deceptively simple prompt—What is the object you’ve held onto the longest?—Ahmed uncovers objects imbued with meaning: scissors, a childhood diary, a delicate vase, a Russian doll. These seemingly ordinary items become powerful vessels, safeguarding stories of ancestors, distant homelands, and fractured yet enduring identities.

Yusuf Ahmed, Viktor and The Russian Princess Doll, 2023  courtesy of the artist

II. When the War Is Over by Sarah Elawad 

During the celebration, The Africa Center is also proud to unveil Sarah Elawad's When the War is Over. An exhibition designed to transform our building's Fifth Avenue windows, When the War is Over offers a powerful and poetic visual statement along Museum Mile that engages passersby in a conversation about culture, memory, and resilience. 

Born in London with familial roots in Sudan, Elawad draws on personal memory, diasporic identity, and contemporary design to respond to Sudan’s ongoing and underreported conflict. While media coverage has primarily focused on humanitarian crises and political instability, Elawad’s work foregrounds a parallel crisis: the erasure of cultural heritage. From the looting of the National Museum in Khartoum to the displacement of artists and the silencing of creative voices, her installation speaks to the destruction not only of physical spaces but of memory, artistry, and cultural sovereignty.

Sarah Elawad, When the War is Over (Detail Image), 2025, courtesy of the artist

III. Alsarah and the Nubatones LIVE!

In celebration of the exhibition and the window installation debut, The Africa Center's celebration will also feature live music by Alsarah and the Nubatones. Alsarah & the Nubatones were born out of many dinner conversations between Alsarah and Rami El Aasser about nubian ‘songs of return’, modern migration patterns and the cultural exchanges between Sudan and Egypt. A common love for the richness of pentatonic sounds, and shared migration experiences, expanded the conversation to include armenian – american oud player Haig manoukian and french born togo raised bass player Mawuena Kodjovi. Under the leadership of Alsarah, the brooklyn based group’s sound grew into what they have dubbed as ‘east – african retro-pop’. 

Alsarah and The Nubatones [Photo Credit: Alex Bershaw]

We want to see you there!

Visit us and our partners for a great evening: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Neue Galerie New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; The Jewish Museum; Museum of the City of New York; El Museo del Barrio.

For more information on the programs, events, and exhibitions on display during Museum Mile, please visit each institutions website to learn more.