The Colored Girls Museum will remain open after months in limbo

The Colored Girls Museum received official word Monday that Philadelphia’s Zoning Board of Adjustments granted it the variance it needed to remain open at its 140-year-old, three-story Victorian home at 4613 Newhall St.

“This is an enormous relief for the Colored Girls Museum and her community,” said Vashti DuBois, the museum’s founder and executive director. “We are incredibly grateful to the zoning board for recognizing the invaluable role the museum plays in celebrating the stories of ordinary Black women and girls.”

Last spring, following a complaint, a city investigation found the museum in violation of two codes.

The museum, that also doubled as DuBois’ home, violated a long-standing city rule that a dwelling in a residential neighborhood was only allowed one use, like a home or a museum. The second violation is that cultural institutions in residential neighborhoods must be detached. The Colored Girls Museum is housed in a twin.

The Zoning Board of Adjustments held a community meeting over Zoom in November, where dozens of residents in the Germantown neighborhood — and many who lived on Newhall Street — celebrated the museum, wanting it to remain open. Hundreds of letters were written in favor of the museum too, including one from Leonard and Diane Thompson, the owners of the twin next door.

“In the eight years we’ve been attached to the museum, we’ve never expressed any remorse for being on the other side of its walls,” the Thompsons wrote.

The board decided the museum could remain open in December, but as a museum or cultural institution only. DuBois will move out before the next exhibit opens.

The Colored Girls Museum opened in 2016, two years after DuBois’ husband unexpectedly died and she almost lost her home to foreclosure. It is a monument to healing. All of its exhibits — starting with “A Good Night’s Sleep” to its most recent, “Sit A Spell” — offer Black women a safe place to recover from emotional wounds.

Vibrant portraits, collages, sculptures, and fiber arts by Philadelphia artists Monna Morton, Denys Davis, Barbara Bullock, Toni Kersey, and Nile Livingston speak to the protection, praise, and grace of Black women like Michelle Obama and Beyoncé, to ordinary/everyday sisters like school teachers, domestic workers, Big Mamas, and aunties. In 2022, DuBois was named a Philadelphia Culture Treasure for centering the work of Black artists and amplifying the voices of Black women and girls.

“A win for the Colored Girls Museum in a year that has already proven to be so challenging for Black women nationally represents a win for all of us at a time when we really needed it,” DuBois said.