Working with a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College partnered with the Danny Simmons’ Corridor Gallery and the National Conference of Artists New York to bring forth a multitude of various voices and mediums from around the country to raise awareness of the ways in which Black artists use art as a tool of transformation and liberation for themselves and the larger global community.
On February 26th at 1:00 pm, the National Conference of Artists New York will celebrate their 51st anniversary conference and Black Art History Maker’s Awards along with a panel titled Art As An Instrument for Social Change, a continuing campaign that started in 1997. The distinguished panel discussion will take place at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue @ 82nd Street). The awards, given to distinguished individuals in the arts, will honor three extraordinary artists who have excelled in producing art that speaks to changing society.
The first honoree this year is noted artist, Faith Ringgold, best known for her painted story quilts — art that combines painting, quilted fabric and storytelling. She has exhibited in major museums in the USA, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She is in the permanent collection of many museums including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Guggenheim, Museum of Modern Art, and the preeminent Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her first book, Tar Beach, was a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration, among numerous other honors. She has written and illustrated eleven children’s books. She has received more than 75 awards, fellowships, citations and honors, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Fellowship for painting, two National Endowment for the Arts Awards and seventeen honorary doctorates, one of which is from her alma mater The City College of New York.
The second distinguished honoree is Wilhelmina Obatola Grant, a Harlem-based, two-time Breast cancer survivor. Ms. Grant is a mixed-media assemblage artist who uses found objects as a concrete way to interpret abstract emotional and psychological aspects of human behavior and social condition. Many of the ideas that stimulate the creation of her work are reflective of her interpretations of contemporary social issues, namely: gentrification, violence against women and breast cancer awareness. It is her sincere hope to have an impact on the community through the realm of visual art. Her outreach work has extended to the media where she appeared in approximately 25 television, radio and magazine interviews. She was featured on 97.8-KISS-FM radio’s Phenomenal Woman series, the cover of MAMM, a national women’s cancer magazine, and two breast cancer documentaries: “What I Wish I Knew” and “Between Us: A First Aid Kit For Your Heart and Soul.”
The third awardee, Ademola Olugebefola, is a renowned contemporary artist whose work has set standards of innovative excellence. Widely collected and published in hundreds of books, catalogs, magazines and newspapers, his work has also been featured in major museums, universities, and galleries. His work has also been featured on television in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and Japan. His paintings, graphics and mixed media work is shown extensively on the internet. Born in the US Virgin Islands and raised in New York City, Ademola has expanded his national exhibitions to New York State’s mid Hudson Valley over the last few years. Among a spectrum of recent art, culture and special projects activity, Albany International Airport hosted his paintings and a lecture as part of a landmark exhibition in October 2000.
In June 2001, Poughkeepsie’s Albert Shahinian Gallery presented Olugebefola and painter Helen Douglas in a critically acclaimed exhibition. Recent solo exhibitions and educational presentations include: IRADAC at City College; Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY; CHI Gallery in Oakland, California; Rush Arts in Chelsea, NY; and recent group shows at Fire Patrol #5 Art and Gallery X in Harlem and Danny Simmons’ Corrider Gallery in Brooklyn. And his most recent multimedia solo shows Blues And The Abstract Truth and Goddesses and Gurus: Earth, Wind and Fire April 2005 at Savacou Gallery in the East Village, are highlights of his recent work over the last few years. After returning from Salvador, Bahia and Rio de Janiero Brazil in February 2005 Ademola was seen as part of a Caribbean region PBS special documentary on similarities in Brazilian culture, the British and US Virgin Islands where he was born. Ademola is a long-time member of the famed Weusi Nyumba ya Sanaa artists collective and 37 year member of the National Conference of Artists.
At The Metropolitan Museum of Art, there will be an afternoon panel discussion on Art As An Instrument of Social Change with 2009 Black Arts History Maker Jeremiah Kyle Drake, (Restoring the Icon, Theatre of the Oppressed and NCA), Dread Scott, Jamel Shabazz and Khalil Almustafa. This will be a powerful session for those interested in art or those interested in making the changes that need to be made, in government, and in our everyday lives.
The National Conference of Artists New York began their 51st Anniversary Conference with the opening of the exhibition, The Black Artist As Activist on Sunday, January 31 at The Corridor Gallery, 334 Grand Avenue in Brooklyn. The exhibit is on view through March 28, 2010. Among the many artists from around the U.S. featured are Regina Agu; Andrea Chung; Sheryl Renee Dobson; Khalid Kodi; Zoraida Lopez; Joanna Mcfarland; Jasmine Murrell; Shani Peters; Terrance Sanders; Malik Seneferu, Ademola Olugebefola and Derick Cross. The exhibit features artists whose various media include collage, painting, printmaking and photography to depict images that represent the artist as activist and art as an instrument for social change.
The Corridor Gallery (Clinton Hill, Brooklyn) is a core program of the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization founded in 1995 by brothers Russell, Danny and Joseph “Rev. Run” Simmons. Corridor Gallery is dedicated to providing exhibition opportunities to the emerging artistic community including artists, curators and writers primarily living and working in Brooklyn and the surrounding areas. Since its establishment in 1996, the gallery has supported a unique constellation of artists and creative practices—experimental ventures in performance, visual art, and curatorial work and has exhibited the work of hundreds of non-commercially represented artists. The gallery serves the local community by hosting special events aimed at initiating a dialogue on matters relating to contemporary art. In addition, Corridor Gallery is also home to Rush Education Programs that expose and immerse disadvantaged urban youth in the study and practice of contemporary art. The exhibitions and educational programs of the galleries are sponsored in part by a grant from the New York State Council for the Arts and are free and open to the public. In 2008, the Gallery was awarded the Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture from the department of Cultural Affairs for its pioneering programming.
Previous Black Art History Maker’s Awardees include, Dr. Margaret Burroughs (NCA founder), David C. Driskell (of whom the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora was named at the University of Maryland, College Park), Elizabeth Catlett, Paul R. Jones, Voza Rivers (Harlem Arts Alliance), Dr. Barbara Ann Teer founder of The National Black Theatre, Lorenzo Pace (creator of the largest monument to Black people in the U.S., “Triumph of the Human Spirit” at the site of The African Burial Grounds), Georgette Powell, Laurie Cumbo founder of MoCADA and many more. This year’s conference is dedicated to Paul R. Jones, former awardee, who passed away last month.
About Medgar Evers College, CUNY
Medgar Evers College was founded in 1970 through the efforts from educators and community leaders in central Brooklyn. The College is named after Medgar Wiley Evers, a Mississippi-born black civil rights activist who was assassinated on June 12, 1963. The College is divided into four schools: The School of Business; The School of Professional and Community Development; The School of Liberal Arts and Education; and The School of Science, Health, and Technology. Through these Schools, the College offers 29 associate and baccalaureate degree programs, as well as certificate programs in fields such as English, Nursing, and Accounting. Medgar Evers College also operates several co-curricular and external programs and associated centers such as the Male Development and Empowerment Center, the Center for Women’s Development, the Center for Black Literature, and The DuBois Bunche Center for Public Policy.