EAST PROVIDENCE — Shipwreck artifacts that help tell their story remain boxed in storage and photos, ceramics, books and other objects have had to be turned away.

After four years in its storefront location on Waterman Avenue, the Cape Verdean Museum Exhibit — the only one of its kind in the United States — needs a new home. The curator and board members say the space is too small and they want to expand.

They are asking city officials to help them find a new location and have their eyes set on the former Union Primary School on Pawtucket Avenue in the Rumford section of the city.

The school has been vacant since August 2008 when the city made the East Providence Community Center and its food pantry leave the building so that the School Department could use it as an administration building. But school officials remained at their current location on the other end of the city in Riverside.

“Since we’ve opened, we’ve had people come to our museum from 27 states and nine countries,” Yvonne Smart, the museum’s educational coordinator, told the City Council recently. “People come to us because of our uniqueness. We are the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to the history and culture of Cape Verde and Cape Verdeans in America.”

Cape Verde is a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, west of Senegal. The islands combined are slightly larger than Rhode Island. They were colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th century and became an independent country in 1975. Immigrants from the small republic and their descendants have lived in New England for more than 200 years, making significant contributions to the whaling and cranberry industries.

More than 200 people have loaned or donated historic items and photos to the museum. Its library has early reports on the slave trade and rare Cape Verdean independence-era pamphlets in its collection.

“We’ve had requests from educators, poets, musicians and other people who would like to present programs at the museum, but we … just don’t have the room to do all the things that we want to do.”

Councilman Brian Coogan said, “I think the city should try to help out in any way that we can.”

Although most agreed, some council members weren’t sure the former school building would be the best fit.

City Manager Richard Brown also said work would need to be done on heating and cooling systems to make it suitable for preserving museum artifacts.

The council directed Brown and the Planning Department to work with museum officials.

apina@projo.com