By Joy Young,
Howard University News Service
The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum has debuted its exhibition “A Bold and Beautiful Vision.” The work, which focuses on the local educators and institutions that shaped Black artists from 1900 to 2000, will be on display until March 2, 2025.
The exhibit showcases a century of Black arts education through 85 archival photos and artifacts, exclusive video footage, art and interactive displays.
The opening ceremony included a panel discussion where Howard arts alums came to reflect on how Howard University inspired and molded their careers.
“I don’t know how many art schools in America or anywhere else that get their students so invested in the art of making art,” said Kinshasha Conwill, Howard alumna and founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. “Every time I come back to campus, my touchstone, my lotus, is the [Howard] Fine Arts building because that is where so much of who I am began.”
According to the museum’s website, D.C. arts educators often had to navigate underfunded schools that had to endure segregation and other hurdles.
However, high schools like Dunbar, Armstrong and McKinley Tech, and universities like Howard, were still able to provide students with a formal education.
“African-American artist-educators in 20th-century Washington were unified not by a singular aesthetic vision but by a bold and deeply held commitment to inspiring a love of the arts in young people,” said a statement in the entryway of the exhibition.
Included in the family-friendly exhibit are prints from one of D.C’s earliest Black-owned art galleries, the Barnett-Aden Gallery, late 1960s silkscreen prints by Lou Stovall, a D.C. visual artist, and the paintbrushes and watercolor paint set of educator and painter Alma Thomas.
In the interactive section of the exhibit, there is a Gratitude Garden, an area with markers, stencils, and paper where attendees are encouraged to leave a note to an arts educator who impacted their lives.
There is also a section where guests can listen to music created by Black musicians or play with a DJ set and keyboard.
This article was originally published by Howard University News Service.