The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), part of the Smithsonian Institution (SI) complex in Washington, D.C., is the only SI museum with a permanent music exhibition, titled Musical Crossroads. This exhibit traces significant figures and developments in African American musical cultures, demonstrating “how African American music provided a voice for liberty, justice, and social change” (NMAAHC, 2016). In this document, comprised of three interrelated studies, I navigated the connections between music education and museum education in this unique space. In the first study, I relayed the narratives of performing arts curator Dr. Dwandalyn Reece and her team on the development of Musical Crossroads. For the second study, I surveyed current NMAAHC visitors to determine the efficacy of the Musical Crossroads exhibit. Finally, in the third study, I described the experiences of three music teachers who use SI’s online platform, Smithsonian Learning Lab (SLL), to teach lessons on African American musical cultures using objects found in Musical Crossroads. In the final chapter, I traced the throughline of these studies and provide implications for future connections between music education and museum education pedagogies. The first study, a narrative inquiry, traced the development of Musical Crossroads from the perspectives of three key figures in the exhibit’s history: Dr. Dwandalyn Reece, former curator of music and performing arts; Dr. Kevin Strait, a former curatorial assistant for the exhibition; and Ms. Hannah Grantham, a current curatorial and research assistant for NMAAHC. These narratives are bound by temporality, sociality, and place, highlighting the crux of music and museum education in the development of Musical Crossroads. I identified several common themes through their stories, including: (a) the educational, professional, and musical backgrounds of participants; (b) the themes and objectives of Musical Crossroads; (c) the curation and collaboration process; (d) tensions in the development process; and (e) the role of education in Musical Crossroads. Although three distinct experiences were present throughout, I funneled the three perspectives into one cohesive narrative. In the second study, I distributed surveys to Musical Crossroads visitors (n = 422) over several months to examine if visitors meet the experiential and educational goals set by NMAAHC staff. The survey contained questions on visitors’ overall experience in the exhibit, what genres they experienced, what elements of the exhibit they interacted with, if they learned about various themes of African American musical cultures, and several demographic items. Results of the survey showed that Musical Crossroads visitors generally had a positive experience in the exhibit, had varied levels of interaction with exhibit elements, and are learning about key themes of African American musical cultures developed by NMAAHC staff. In the conclusion of this study, I discussed implications based on various survey items, including visitor demographics, exhibit interactive spaces, musical genres, and exhibit themes. For the final study, I conducted a multiple case study of music teachers’ perceptions and implementations of the Smithsonian Learning Lab (SLL) program. SLL is an online platform that provides users access to millions of museum artifacts, specimens, recordings, and other materials from all museums across the SI ecosystem, including NMAAHC. I tasked three music teachers with using SLL to conduct two lessons that included African American musical cultures. Each participant approached these lessons differently based on their varied classrooms and comfort with the SLL program. I identified several findings, including the varied impressions of SLL from the teachers, how they incorporated SLL based on various specialties and grade levels taught, and how they perceived and practiced culturally relevant pedagogy and object-based learning using SLL. Along with these findings, I discussed how music teachers may utilize SLL in the future and possible improvements to SLL. I conclude this dissertation with an overview of the three studies, their connections to each other, and their relevance in music and museum education. Additionally, I discuss how this dissertation uniquely contributes to the music and museum education literature. Finally, I provide a reflection on this specific project and how music and museum educators can influence each other in future projects and research.