Photo by Beau Finley.

While the official opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is still about a year away, the exterior construction of the building is about complete—and it is set to become the 3-D canvas for an ambitious, temporary exhibition.

A seven-minute video display will be projected onto the façade of the building—all five stories and one city block of it—for three nights next month. The event is commemorating three important anniversaries in African American history: “ratification of the 13th Amendment, which officially ended the institution of slavery (1865), passage of the Voting Rights Act (Aug. 6, 1965) and the end of the Civil War (surrender at Appomattox, Va., April 8, 1865),” the museum said.

Dubbed “Commemorate and Celebrate Freedom,” it will take place on Nov. 16-18 from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Before the images illuminate the walls on Monday, November 16, a live program will feature a series of musical performances, poetry, and speeches.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Museum Director Lonnie Bunch III are slated to speak. And the entertainment will include performances from R&B and gospel vocalist BeBe Winans; pianist, composer and conductor Darin Atwater and his Soulful Symphony; and the Heritage Signature Chorale directed by Stanley J. Thurston.

The video, which will loop throughout all three evenings on the west and south sides of the building, includes historic images related to slavery, abolition and Reconstruction, the Civil War and the Civil Rights era. It can best be seen “from the mound area of the Washington Monument and the knoll area adjacent to Madison Drive, at the corner of 14th Street, facing the south side of the museum,” the museum said. The north and east sides will also have special lighting and static images to add to the effect,

“This will be a dynamic event for the entire community,” said Bunch, founding director of the museum, in a release. “In addition to celebrating the completion of the external construction of the museum, the image mapping will also initiate the public countdown to the museum’s grand opening in fall 2016. It is also an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate historic moments where the African American experience has had an impact on expanding the rights and freedoms of all Americans.”

For those looking to get some off the first souvenirs from the museum, there will be a pop-up gift shop that opens at 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 16.