SANDY SPRING SLAVE MUSEUM AND AFRICAN ART GALLERY INC

What SANDY SPRING SLAVE MUSEUM AND AFRICAN ART GALLERY INC does

Sandy Spring Slave Museum and African Art Gallery, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit cultural institution founded in 1988 by Dr. Winston Anderson, Ph.D., and located in the historic freeman's village of Sandy Spring, Maryland, at 18524 Brooke Road. The museum's mission is to preserve and share the heritage of African American families in Montgomery County, Maryland, covering Black history from origins through the Middle Passage, the Underground Railroad, the Civil Rights movement, and contemporary accomplishments in the United States and the African Diaspora. It is a 100% volunteer-run institution with 6 employees, governed by co-directors Dr. Sandi Williams and Dr. Troy E. Boddy and managed by Deborah (Smith) Buchanan.

The museum's offerings span educational tours (self-guided $10 adult / $5 child, group $250 for up to 50), K-12 educational programs covering African American history and the African Diaspora, facility rentals ($500 half-day / $1,000 full-day), a Speakers Bureau ($300 per speaker), genealogy support with Ancestry subscription access ($20/year), and community programs including Heritage Day, the Black Author Book Festival, and a Heritage Trail Map. It operates a five-tier membership program ($25-$500 annually) and accepts donations via PayPal, check, CashApp, and IRA Charitable Rollover. Notable physical assets include the reconstructed Hopkins House log dwelling and a History Kiosk featuring local community figures. Recent events include the Black Author Book Festival with 30 authors and Heritage Day 2024 with 250+ visitors.

The business model is a hybrid of earned revenue (admissions, tours, rentals, speakers, memberships) and philanthropic revenue (donations, grants, philanthropy). The go-to-market is community-led and event-driven, supported by partnerships with American University (a $10,000 Humanities Truck Fellowship Grant), Sharp Street United Methodist Church, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The museum distributes bookings through the Peek platform, membership through Square checkout, and event discovery through its website, email newsletter, and social media. No proprietary technology, app, or AI capabilities are present; the digital stack is limited to Squarespace, Peek, Google Forms, and Square.

Name

SANDY SPRING SLAVE MUSEUM AND AFRICAN ART GALLERY INC

Legal name

Sandy Spring Slave Museum and African Art Gallery, Inc.

Website

https://sandyspringslavemuseum.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1988

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Sandy Spring Slave Museum and African Art Gallery is a 100% volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Sandy Spring, Maryland, founded in 1988 to preserve African American heritage in Montgomery County through educational tours, K-12 programs, community events, genealogy services, and a five-tier membership program.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cultural Heritage Museum

NAICS

Museums (712110), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (712)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Museums & Heritage Sites (History, Science, Specialty) (BPAGAHAA)

Keywords

• African American history museum
• Cultural heritage education
• Art gallery exhibits
• Historical museum tours
• Genealogy research services

Headquarters

HQ city

Sandy Spring

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations: The museum relies entirely on generous contributions from community members. Donations are accepted via PayPal, check, CashApp ($Cashtag: $SSSlaveMuseum), and IRA Charitable Gift Rollover for donors 70½ or older.
2. Membership: Five membership levels ranging from $25 (Student) to $500 (Sustainers), offering benefits including free admission, priority event notifications, exhibition previews, and facility rental discounts.
3. Facility Rentals: Museum venue rentals for events including book signings, photoshoots, cultural ceremonies, workshops, family reunions, and educational retreats. Half-day (4 hours) for $500, all-day (8 hours) for $1,000.
4. Admission Fees: Self-guided tours at $10 for adults and $5 for children (12 and under). Group and educational tours available at $250 for groups of 50 or less.
5. Speaker Fees: Speakers Bureau providing expert keynote speakers, lecturers, and interactive presentations for $300 per speaker (with potential increases based on requester needs).
6. Genealogy Services: Genealogy support including initial consultation and Ancestry subscription access for $20 per year.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Sandy Spring Slave Museum and African Art Gallery is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit museum that preserves and exhibits the history of enslaved Africans in the Sandy Spring region of Montgomery County, Maryland, alongside a collection of African art. It offers self-guided and group tours of its exhibits, educational programming for schools and community groups, genealogy research support, a paid speakers bureau, and facility/venue rental. The institution is 100% volunteer-run and was founded in 1988 by Dr. Winston Anderson.

Product overview

The Sandy Spring Slave Museum and African Art Gallery is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit museum that operates as a single-site cultural institution offering educational tours, community programs, and membership services. The museum's core offerings center on self-guided and guided tours of its exhibits covering African American heritage, the Middle Passage, the Underground Railroad, and Civil Rights history. Educational Tours serve K-12 school groups with optional arts and crafts activities, while the Speakers Bureau provides expert lectures on history and culture topics. The organization supplements its core museum experience with venue rentals for events, a five-tier membership program (Hilltop through Cincinnati), a scholarship fund for local students, genealogy research support with Ancestry access, a Heritage Trail Map, artifact donation acceptance, volunteer/internship opportunities, a Youth Advisory Council, and a Century Club honoring centenarians from local kinship communities. The museum does not operate a unified software platform but provides its programs and services through in-person visits, online booking systems, and virtual Zoom sessions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Self-Guided Museum Tour Independent walk-through of the museum's exhibits on African American slavery history and African art; available to individual general public visitors during open hours.
• Group Museum Tour Guided tour of the museum's exhibits arranged for organized groups such as community organizations, clubs, and adult learning groups.
• Educational/School Tour Curriculum-oriented guided tour tailored for K-12 and college school groups, focused on African American history and the local Sandy Spring slavery narrative.
• Facility/Venue Rental

Quantifiable outcome

• Free books provided to all youth visitors through generous donor Richie Anderson's gift
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• American UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe museum received a $10,000 Humanities Truck Fellowship Grant in collaboration with American University. The Humanities Truck, a mobile platform, engaged communities through humanities-related activities including recording, workshops, exhibitions, and performances. From September 2021 to August 2022, the project focused on Sharp Street United Methodist Church, a historic site in the Sandy Spring African American Heritage Area, involving collaborative research and documentation led by Dr. Rachel Watkins and her students.
• Sharp Street United Methodist ChurchcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHistoric site in the Sandy Spring African American Heritage Area. The Humanities Truck project involved collaborative research and documentation with the church, focusing on preserving and documenting the site's significance in African American heritage.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• National Civil Rights Museum: Memphis museum at the site of the Lorraine Motel. Comparable as a civil rights / African American heritage museum with educational tour offerings for K-12 and a focus on connecting local history to broader national narrative.
• Museum of the African Diaspora: San Francisco museum focused on the African diaspora experience. Comparable in storytelling through art, artifacts, and educational programming, though it operates in a major-museum context with paid staff.
• DuSable Museum of African American History: Chicago's African American history museum founded in 1961. Comparable in heritage-preservation mission, educational tours, and donor-supported model, with a longer operating history at a larger scale.
• Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History: Maryland's principal African American history museum located in Baltimore. Directly comparable in mission (preserving Maryland African American heritage) and customer base (schools, families, community groups), though larger in scale and staffed rather than volunteer-run.
• Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History: Detroit-based museum covering African American history from African origins through the present. Comparable in educational tour programming for schools and family visitors, though substantially larger and institutionally funded.
• African American Museum in Philadelphia: Philadelphia's first institution devoted to the life and history of African Americans. Comparable in educational programming, school-group tours, and event-rental revenue model, though it is staffed and has a larger collection.
• Whitney Plantation: Louisiana museum dedicated to the history of slavery in the American South. Comparable in its singular focus on slavery and African American heritage, with a similar mix of tours, educational programming, and donations-supported funding.
• The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration: Founded by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Direct peer in mission — documenting slavery, racial terrorism, and African American resilience — though it operates at substantially larger scale with paid staff and ticketed national-tourist traffic.
• Banneker-Douglass Museum: Maryland's official museum of African American heritage, operated by the Maryland Center for History and Culture. Comparable in scope (documenting African American life in Maryland), but state-operated rather than volunteer-run.

Broad incumbents

• National Museum of African American History and Culture (Smithsonian): The Smithsonian's flagship African American history museum in Washington, D.C. — about 25 miles from Sandy Spring. Comparable in mission and audience but vastly larger in collection, budget, and operating scale, and free to the public, making it a strong substitute for visitors willing to drive.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sandy-spring-slave-museum-and-african-art-gallery-inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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