Erna Beumers was a long-time curator for the Africa Department at the Museum Voor Volkenkunde Rotterdam in the Netherlands until the time of her retirement circa 2005. Her publications include works related to two of her curatorial museum exhibits: Kings of Africa: Art and Authority in Central Africa, Collection Museum für Volkerkunde Berlin (Foundation Kings of Africa, 1992), which she co-edited with Hans-Joachim Koloss, and Africa Meets Africa: The African Collection of the Museum of Ethnology Rotterdam (Museum of Ethnology, 1996). Beumers’s interest and expertise in African art extends to cinema.

The Erna Beumers FESPACO collection includes publications, promotional materials, and participant packets she brought back from her visits to the Festival panafricain du cinéma à Ouagadougou/Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) from 1987-1993 and 1999-2013. FESPACO, which is held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso biennially, was founded in 1969 and has grown into the largest African film festival.