You’re Invited to the
SOUL REVIVAL ARTSCAPE OPEN HOUSE
Saturday, July 17, 2010
2 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Soul Revival: A Poetic and Visual Experience of Renewal

Meroe Art Gallery
West Baltimore Center for Urban Art
1623 West North Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21217

Co-Sponsored by Meroe Art Gallery and Authentic Contemporary Art

Exhibition Dates: May 1-August 1, 2010

FREE and Open to the Public!

Featuring:

DJ Fusion of Fusebox Radio
Spoken Word Performance by Baltimore’s Own Nina “Lyrispect” Ball (invited)
Musical Performance by James Terrell
Plus Face Painting for the Kids by
Art-n-Soul of Baltimore and light refreshments

In Baltimore during this year’s ArtScape? Come by and check out Soul Revival at Meroe Art Gallery on Saturday, July 17th!

This exciting exhibition features emerging artists and poets based the DC/Baltimore Metropolitan area on the theme of “Soul Revival.” What do we mean by revival? We are speaking of revival of the soul, spirit, neighborhood, community, nation, and even the world. The result is a eclectic visual range of artistic expression, ranging from realism to abstract and everything in between!

Selected works of from the artists work has been paired with a poet/ spoken word artist who developed a poem that expresses their view about the art. Their contributions is an integral part of the exhibition, resulting in an innovative creative representation from a variety of artists-literary and visual- of the meaning of Soul Revival!

Check out the the artwork and poetry of Soul Revival here!

Visual Artists (Authentic Contemporary Art):

Jade Andwele
Prudence Bonds
Sharon Burton
Keisha Carroll
Marshetta Davis
Sherria Green
Darren Jackson
J’Nell Jordan
Nilja Mumin
Heather Schmaedeke
Marcel Taylor
James Terrell

Poets and Spoken Word Artists:

Cherrie Amour
Nina “Lyrispect” Ball
Natasha Brown
Marguax Delotte-Bennett
Amy Jackson
Alan King
Dehejia Maat
Bonnie MacAllister
Stephanie Renee

For the first time ever, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) teams up with Howard University and Black Artists of DC for a very special 2010 Porter Colloquium.

This event will honor master artists Elizabeth Catlett, Dr. Floyd Coleman, and Dr. Jeff Donaldson; as well as art collector, educator, and cultural philanthropist Dr. Peggy Cooper-Cafritz.

Named for the pioneer art historian and professor James A. Porter, the Porter Colloquium is the leading forum for scholars, artists, curators, and individuals in the field of African American art and visual culture.

To support the continuation of his legacy, DCCAH joins Black Artists of DC and Howard University to host the April Art Salon. This unique event will celebrate an exhibition of works by the esteemed honorees and bring together scholars, collectors, administartors, and supporters of DC’s creative communities. A special address will be given by DCCAH Chair Dr. Anne Ashmore-Hudson, Commissioner Marvin Bowser, Black Artists of DC Chairman Akili Anderson, and Dr. Gwendolyn Everett, the Howard University Art Department Chair.

Date: April 17, 2010
Time: 6-8pm
Location: Howard University Gallery of Art

The Loyce M. Jones and James Wells Gallery, Childers Hall Division of Fine Arts.

For more information, contact Zoma Wallace at zoma.wallace@dc.gov and join the Facebook Event

Welcome to our third podcast for the year 2010. For the month of April 2010, we are focusing on The 21st Annual James A. Porter Colloquium which will be held on the campus of Howard University, April 16-17, 2010 in Washington, DC. Started in 1990 by art historian Dr. Floyd Coleman, the Porter Colloquium is one of the foremost academic setting for innovative dialogue and perspectives regarding African American Art from leading and emerging scholars, artist, collectors, and cultural critics.

For this podcast, we have invited Teresia Bush to talk about the history and this year’s Colloquium with the theme of “Fearless.” Ms. Bush is a Assistant Professor of Art History of Howard University. She has a 26 year career in working with museums, including the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum, Corocoran, and New Muse in Brooklyn, New York. Her area of specialization has focused on Modern, Contemporary Art and African American Art.

This year’s Colloquium Gala will honor the lifetime achievements of artist Elizabeth Catlett, philanthropist and community leader, Peggy Cooper Cafritz, art historian and scholar, Jeff Donaldson (posthumously), and art historian, critic, and Colloquium founder, Floyd Coleman.

For more information aboout the James A. Porter Colloquium and to register, visit http://www.jamesaportercolloquium.org/home.html

Down load and listen to the conversation here (or the podcast player on the right column of this blog).

Artinfo.com
Published: February 24, 2010

Earlier this month, the biggest auction houses proved they were back on their game, posting strong numbers in London. Now their smaller brethren are proving that they can notch up sales too. Swann’s auction of African-American fine art took home a healthy $1.24 million total with buyer’s premium yesterday, just barely shy of its $1.3–1.9 million estimate. Of the 162 works on offer, 118 found buyers, netting the auctioneer a respectable 73 percent sold-rate by lot.

Malvin Gray Johnson, a member of the Harlem Renaissance, had a striking auction debut, as a collector paid $228,000 for his Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, 1928-29, which depicts a group of people pointing out at a dark, cloud-filled landscape. Swann declared it the artist’s “best known work,” and the bidder seemed to agree.

The somewhat peculiar premise of the auction led to an unusual mixture of artists, ranging across different time periods and styles. Jacob Lawrence’s circa 1941-42 gouache on board, Untitled (Two Card Players), went for $42,600, followed later by a choice David Hammons print from 1977, Untitled (Body Print), which earned a sporty $114,000, beating its $80,000–100,000 estimate with the addition of the buyer’s premium. It was the second most expensive lot of the evening.

Friday, March 5, 2010
David C. Driskell Center
University of Maryland, College Park

Opening Reception Time: 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

Performance
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons

Exhibition on View
Her Story: Margo Humphrey, Lithographs and Works on Paper

Book Signing
Margo Humphrey, Margo Humphrey, Volume VII
Adrienne L. Childs, Pomegranate, David C. Driskell Series of African American Art

Saturday, March 6, 2010
UMUC Inn and Conference Center
Adelphi, MD

Symposium Time: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Closing Reception Time: 5 p.m.–7 p.m.

Leading scholars will present on African diasporan women in art, with topics to include:

Keynote
Lorraine O’Grady, Performance Artist

The New Negress: Kara Walker does Josephine Baker
Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, PhD, University of Pennsylvania

En-Acting Others: Exploring Biography in Identity Performance
Cherise Smith, PhD, University of Texas at Austin

The Arts of Healing
Lisa Gail Collins, PhD, Vassar College

Andrea Chung’s Cutouts: Photography and Rememory in the Caribbean
Krista Thompson, PhD, Northwestern University

Autobiography in the Work of Contemporary African Artists: Marasela, Kure, Essaydi
Christa Clarke, PhD, The Newark Museum

Event Pricing
General Admission: $100
UMUC and UMCP Faculty: $75
Students: $40

*Limited scholarship opportunities are available to students of University of Maryland University College; University of Maryland, College Park; and Maryland high schools. To apply, contact Angela Hutchison at eventsandarts@umuc.edu or at 301-985-7937.

To register, click here.

In the 1930s and 40s, pioneering linguist Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner (1890–1972) proved through scientific research and audio recordings that the Gullah language, spoken in the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia by descendants of African slaves, retained African words and expressions and conveyed cultural traditions.

Come travel with the museum to Charleston, Hilton Head Island, Beaufort, and other unique nearby communities to retrace Turner’s expeditions in language and culture in celebration of the Museum’s upcoming 2010–2011 exhibition, Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Communities Through Language.

Experience the cultural, culinary, and festive traditions of the Gullah people, enjoy a variety of day-tours with a local guide, and participate in special, behind-the-scenes activities, including the Gullah Festival in Beaufort. Gain insight into Turner’s work and the continuing connections with communities of the African Diaspora during exclusive sessions with Dr. Gail S. Lowe, the Anacostia Community Museum’s senior historian and project manager for the upcoming exhibition.

To see the full trip itinerary, please click here.

We have been hearing wonderful things about exhibitions and events at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture Maryland, based in Baltimore.

As we move into African American History Month in February, we invited
Michelle Joan Wilkinson, Ph.D. who is the Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the museum to talk more about the excitement that is brewing in the museum as it celebrates it’s 5th Anniversary this year.

Wilkinson received her Ph.D. from Emory University in Atlanta in 2001 Wilkinson served as an assistant professor at Bard College in New York from 1999-2002. She has worked on exhibitions and publications for the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She also worked for the Studio Museum in Harlem as an Editor and Library Coordinator. Her past curatorial projects at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum include A People’s Geography: The Spaces of African American Life
and East Side Stories: Portraits of a Baltimore Neighborhood, Then and Now

Per her request, we are referring her remarks by her first name, Michelle.

AV: Give us a brief description/history of the Reginald Lewis Museum

Michelle: We’re actually just coming upon our 5th Anniversary this June 2010. We opened our doors in June of 2005. Our museum is a repository and exhibiting collections of all that relate to African American history and culture especially in Maryland. We have over 10,000 square feet of exhibition gallery space. A portion of that is dedicated to special exhibitions, so in those spaces we not only highlight Maryland stories but also do stories of African American History and Culture on a more national level as well as some shows that are connected to the African Diaspora. Reginald Lewis, for those who don’t know, was a Baltimore native and entrepreneur, and a philanthropist. He was actually the first African American billionaire and the head of the TLC/Beatrice Corporation. The museum was named in his honor as a Baltimore native. He passed in 1993.

AV: Tell us about the current exhibition and upcoming Bearden exhibition

Michelle: Right now we have on view an exhibition titled Canvasing the Movement. It’s a small art exhibition and it’s really about the way that artists have been inspired by the Civil Rights Movement. The title of the exhibition and even the concept for it was generated because our museum was hosting an exhibition called 381 Days, about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. That was an exhibition that the Smithsonian organized and we were one of the traveling venues for it. And we wanted to do something here, at our museum that we would create that kind of spoke to the importance of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Civil Rights Movement, and really try to understand other aspects of it that [the 381 Days] exhibition didn’t cover. And we thought that one way to do it was through art.

Image: Walking, by Charles Alston, 1958 (courtesy of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture)

One of the images that was reproduced in the 381 Days exhibition, was the painter, Charles Alston’s work “Walking.” Some of your readers probably know Charles Alston’s “Walking”; it is a painting exactly about the bus boycott in Montgomery. It is a beautiful color image—his kind of geometric abstraction, that period of the 50s work. And we thought why not get the original of this painting and have it on view in our Art’s Wall. And so that’s exactly what we did…we found out that the National Museum of African American History and Culture, that will be open on the Mall, that the Alston painting is part of their collection and they were generous enough to loan the painting to us. It’s actually their first loan to a non-Smithsonian institution, so we were really thrilled that we were able to get this original Alston from 1958. And then we really just built the exhibition around it.

So there’s the Alston painting, there are two small paintings by Alma W. Thomas – her sketches for March on Washington. And this is different work for Thomas, it’s really not like those flora and geometric patterns we’re used to seeing…it’s a bit more gesturial and it has an overtly political theme, and that’s not something we’ve seen typically represented as her work or her style. So those two sketches are in the exhibition.

We also got a Norman Lewis, from Bill Hodges Gallery in New York City. It’s really untitled, but the title that is given is Alabama II or Alabama No. 2. It’s like his work and it’s also unlike his work, you really have to come and see it. It’s a red painting, it’s just really one color and there are some of those kinds of figures that you might see in his works like Processions or Processional. It’s one of those things you have to get close, stand back, get close, stand back to really appreciate.

And then what we did is looked at contemporary artists, we asked who is out there now that is working and inspired by this movement? And the work of Charly Palmer really came to mind….because as you know, he has a whole Civil Rights theme, he does March on Washington, he does boycotts, he does so many themes that are related. So half of the exhibition is work from the period and then the second half is Charly Palmer’s work, about the period, looking back.

The title is really about the way canvas became the place for these artists to really become involved in the Civil Rights Movement by portraying what was happening on the streets on the canvas. So they are “canvasing the movement.”

AV: So you curated this exhibition.

Michelle: Yes I curated this for the Reginald Lewis Museum. [The exhibition] has been open since September and the exhibition actually closes at the end of this month, January 31st. It will be open for a couple more weeks and certainly worth coming out to see.

AV: Now there is another exhibition that is going to be opening this weekend?

Michelle: Yes, on Saturday, January 16th, we’re opening a new exhibition on Romare Bearden. Everybody loves Romare Bearden; certainly I’m one of those folks. People really know his collages, they know him as a master collagist, and he was wonderful, he was a genius in that medium. But he was also an avid printmaker and made tons and tons of prints and different types of prints. And so that is what this exhibition focuses on. The full title of the exhibition is From Process to Print: Graphic Works by Romare Bearden. And it will be on view until March 28th.

AV: What should visitors expect to walk away with as a result of viewing these exhibitions?

Michelle: For me, it really would be two things, and I would maybe say as a curator and also as a viewer, the first is color. The first thing when you walk in before you can read any label, or even get up close to understand the interpretation of a piece of work, you see it from a far. And the color in Bearden’s work is magnificent; the color in Alston’s-magnificent, Charly Palmer’s the same thing. So these are very vibrant, very colorful, very bold exhibitions.

Then when you think about what the content is, with Canvasing the Movement I said a little bit already, these are beautiful pictures many of them, but they are also pictures about things that happened, about our history. One of the Charly Palmer paintings is called The Dream, and it’s actually a kind of montage with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama. So, even though he’s looking back on King, he’s also looking at the very present. It’s a 2009 painting, with Obama’s election already being decided at that time. So, there’s a very kind of contemporary feel to our history as well. It’s like you’re reliving by looking at these works, what we have experienced as a people and what we are currently experiencing now, those of us who are here for these historic moments like the election of the first African American president.

With someone like Bearden, a word that comes up a lot is “ritual.” He documents the rituals of African American life. Some these rituals are rural, some of them are urban. He is really a mastermind of conveying really the soul of the Black experience in America. The colors kind of grab you, but then when you start looking what he’s depicting, it’s family life. Baptisms, scenes from the block, the piano lesson, things that happen in the interiors of homes, that we know, but maybe the rest of America doesn’t. I think what you come away with is an appreciation of who we are as a people, and for our traditions. I think Bearden’s show really, whether it is printmaking or collage, is in the end the same. And that is—what his commitment was, as he said—is the telling our story through our own images, making sense of them, kind of giving them their due as universal stories but not shying away from representing the beauty that is that type of blackness.

AV I was pleasantly surprised to learn how much Bearden’s work influenced the work of the renown African American playwright, the late August Wilson.

Michelle: I’m glad that you mentioned August Wilson, because we have some quotes that we use in the gallery. Some of them are Bearden’s, talking about his own process, but we have a quote by August Wilson. And it is saying that when he was introduced to Bearden’s work, he was like “finally THIS is my world.” He was able to understand the world where he came from and to begin creating through his own art form, those worlds for the stage.

AV: What is your perspective of the museum’s key role in society and the community should be?

Michelle: In general, I see museums as sites for public engagement. I think for me that’s what they always have been. Having a career in museums has been most exciting for me. For me, there’s something about maybe a more informal way of learning or a kind of “you-choose-how-you want to learn” in a museum. Information is presented, you can read as much or as little as you like. You can listen to as much or as little as you like. You can go back many, many times. There are public programs you can go to, if you want to have more in depth understanding. There are catalogues you can buy if you want to study the subject matter. But there is a way in which museums provide the space, the venue and enough information, I think, to spark interest, but different from a classroom. There’s a kind of mode of learning that happens differently in museums.

For African American museums, it’s really the same thing. I think we just have to really do more education outside of the museum as to what a museum is, what it does and how it can serve our publics. I think inside the museums a lot of us know, you know, how much we have to offer. I don’t think we are always doing a good enough job of sharing. And sometimes you can’t share until you get people to come in, but to get people to come in, you have to go where they are, you have to kind of build that relationship of trust. And in some of the previous exhibitions that I have done here, it has been a challenge. But when that trust is built and developed, you see the successes.

I see all museums as having the opportunity to be more open and engaging and to do more outreach.

AV: How can people find out more about the museum, programs, activities, the exhibitions, and membership?

Michelle: More information www.africanamericanculture.org Basic membership is only $35, which is very affordable.

Thank you Michelle, for this interview. And we encourage everyone to come up to Baltimore to learn more about the museum. It is located at 830 E. Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21202.

Some upcoming programs this special year include the following:

Salon and Book Signing with Margo Humphrey and Adrienne Childs, Ten Interesting Facts about Margo and the Book Project (Season Holiday Event).

Sunday, December 13, 2009, 3-6 pm, $25 (free or discounted for salon club members) amount can be applied toward a purchase.

Ethiopian Art and Culture Tour with Wosene

January 16-29, 2010

MAS will tour and experience the art of Ethiopian culture through its savory food, scenic country side, cultural centers, and colorful markets.

Ten Artists for Ten Years Exhibition at MAS

March – June 2010

This exhibition, curated by Sharon J. Burton of Authentic Contemporary Art will feature some of Washington’s creative genius and will highlight why we have much to celebrate in our Nation’s (Art) Capital.  The opening event is FREE and open to the public.  Related exhibition programs will be announced at a futre date.

Salon with Dr. Walter O. Evans, Ten Favorite Books and Manuscripts in my Collection

April 30, 2010, Library of Congress

Dr. Evans is well known for his impressive collection of 19th and 20th century African American art.  However, less known is that he may have the largest book collection in the US, perhaps the world –over 100,00 books and manuscripts.  He has taken on the formidable task fo selecting his favorite ten.  This event is a collaboration with the Library of Congress and will take place at noon at the Library.  This event is FREE and open to the public.

MAS 10th Anniversary Celebration (June 2010, TBA)

The 10th program season concludes with an event to celebrate Millennium Arts Salon ten years striving to advance cultural literacy, to acknowledge 10 Washington artists as well as indivisuals who have inspired this vital Washington arts community.  This will be a FREE event.

For more information, visit www.millenniumartssalon.org

To view pictures from the MAS First Annual Salon Club Membership Meeting and Drive on November 21st click here.

About the Millennium Arts Salon

Now celebrating its 10th year, Millennium Arts Salon is committed to advancing cultural literacy through its art programming, which includes salon talks, exhibitions, tours and special events.

Based in historic Columbia Heights, DC, many of its intimate salon talks and art exhibitions are held in its beautifully restored 1923 town home. Through its outreach efforts, it also hostsprograms in various venues around the city and collaborates with art institutions, such as The Phillips Collection, the David C Driskell Center at the University of Maryland College Park, Pyramid Atlantic, and Parish Gallery of Georgetown DC.

MAS is primarily funded through its membership organization, The Millennium Arts Salon Club, consisting of art interested individuals in the Baltimore-Washington-Virginia area and points northand west US, and supported by committed staff and volunteers, and an Art Advisory Board of accomplished artists and art administrators. Its Board of Directors appreciates all for your support.

Although the National Museum of African American History and Culture is not scheduled to open until 2015, founding director Lonnie G. Bunch III has already received hundreds of documents and artifacts that will help convey the African-American story to the public, the Washington Post reports.

When the $500 million museum opens in a new facility on five acres near the Washington Monument, it will include artifacts such as a trumpet once owned by Louis Armstrong, a Jim Crow railroad car, and the original coffin of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old boy killed in Mississippi in 1955 whose battered body in an open casket became a pivotal rallying cry for the modern civil rights movement. To collect these and other items of significance, Bunch and his curatorial team have cast a wide net, holding community meetings in cities around the country where members of the general public can discuss their expectations for the museum and share mementos of that past.

“The exhibitions and opening the building are the priorities,” Bunch told the Post. “Much of the twentieth-century and some of the nineteenth-century materials are in people’s attics and basements and homes.”

Part of the challenge in establishing the museum is determining which stories need to be told. For example, Bunch is not quite sure yet how to discuss slavery, but his wish list of artifacts includes a slave cabin and at least part of a slave ship. He’s also interested in charting the transition from slavery to the quest for education, and his wish list includes a one-room schoolhouse or classroom interior from one of the schools funded by twentieth-century American businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald.

Of course, because the museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution, the staff also has access to a Fort Knox of artifacts, from paintings at the Smithsonian American Art Museum to sports memorabilia at the National Museum of American History. “We will purchase as a last resort,” Bunch said. “I don’t want to make the market unbalanced. But it is nearly impossible to get slavery material and great masters otherwise.”

Source: Trescott, Jacqueline. “Piecing Together a People’s History.” Washington Post 9/04/09

Jacob Lawrence conveyed universal messages about migration and immigration in his depiction of the economic and social hardships endured by African Americans during the Great Migration of the 20th century.

Admission: By donation
Time: 6 and 7 pm
Reservations: Not required

General Information

The Phillips Collection
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10 am – 5 pm
Thursday extended hours until 8:30 pm
Sunday noon – 5 pm
Closed Mondays and federal holidays
Admission: Varies
Address: 1600 21st Street, NW
Metro: Dupont Circle, Q Street exit (Red line)
Phone: 202-387-2151