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This forum is for discussing issues affecting the black community. Get involved don't just read the comments of others; add your own opinion to the forum. Debate is a powerful thing; it gives insight and understanding, so join in.
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Columbia Museum of Art provides a rare chance to see work by one of the most prominent and respected African-American artists of the 20th century, Jacob Lawrence, with the exhibition of 17 panels from The Migration Series. As part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpieces initiative and on loan from The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the paintings are on view from April 14 through June 24 and are accompanied by programming from the University of South Carolina’s Center for Southern African-American Music (CSAM). The presenting sponsor for the Columbia exhibition is SCE&G.
Painted in 1941 the narrative 60-panel work, The Migration of the Negro – the series’ original title – details the movement of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North beginning in World War I, and makes this significant moment in history accessible to challenge, provoke and educate. The paintings, an influential body of work in the history of American art, underscore, from beginning to end, a story of conflict and hope, discrimination and community building -- a journey that combines history, sociology and poetry through visual narrative.
The exhibition also highlights the vital educational role museums play in society’s understanding of art and the broader world through events and programs for children and adults, as well as never before published interviews with the late artist and his wife, Gwendolyn Knight, who was also a painter and sculptor. The importance of the arts in the community was a cause important to Lawrence. According to Jay Gates, director of The Phillips Collection, “Lawrence often acknowledged that his experiences growing up in Harlem, including community-based art workshops and museum visits, were empowering, life-changing events that shaped him as a person and as an artist.”
The Museum partners with USC’s CSAM for exhibition related programming:
PERFORMANCE: Langston Hughes Project
Friday, April 13 7:00 p.m.
The Museum partners with the University of South Carolina’s Center for Southern African-American Music for a special event by University of Southern California jazz professor Ron McCurdy. As music director and composer for the Langston Hughes Project, McCurdy presents a multimedia production of Hughes’ Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz, a masterwork written in 12 parts in the 1960s. Through a performance of spoken word, live music and images, the audience experiences the mood of the Harlem Renaissance. Seating is limited to 300. Free with admission or museum membership.
LECTURE: Lost American Music: African-American Musical Performances from the Fox Movietone News Collection
Friday, April 27 7:00 p.m.
Join Julie Hubbert, interim director of the Center for Southern African-American Music, and Willie Strong, African-American music scholar, for selections from the University of South Carolina’s Film Library 20th Century Fox Movietone News collection. Eleven million feet of film was gifted to the university, and includes outtakes and newsreels from 1919 through 1944. Free with admission or museum membership.
LECTURE: Music of the Harlem Renaissance
Sunday, April 29 2:00 p.m.
Willie Strong, African-American music scholar, presents a lecture about the music of the Harlem Renaissance. Strong is a member of the American Musicological Society, the Society for American Music and the Center for Black Music Research. He is also on the editorial board of American Music. Free with admission or museum membership.
FAMILY FUN DAY
Saturday, May 5 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
The Museum comes alive with activity as families go on a gallery treasure hunt, win prizes, have lunch at the Kids Café, create art, enjoy a NiA Theater Company performance and explore the world of music in a jazz education program designed especially for kids by the Auntie Karen Foundation. Free courtesy of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina.
LECTURE: Remembering Why We Sing: A History of Sacred Black Music
Sunday, May 6 2:00 p.m.
Frankie Goodman, educational outreach coordinator for the University of South Carolina’s Center for Southern African-American Music, hosts a lively lecture that includes vocal illustration. Goodman is an associate with the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, and is a member of the Music Writer's Guilds of Chicago and New York. Free with admission or museum membership.
FRISSON: Artists Respond to Art
Friday, June 1 6:30 p.m.
Poets Eboni Ramm and Porchia Moore explore the imagery of Jacob Lawrence in the gallery through spoken word. Free with admission or museum membership.
PERFORMANCE: Vibrations Dance Company
Friday, June 15 7:00 p.m.
Vibrations Dance Company, known for their popular presentation of Sista Girl and the Soldier: The Urban Nutcracker, brings the Harlem Renaissance to life and celebrates the work of Jacob Lawrence and his contemporaries. Free with admission or museum membership.
CSAM establishes the centricity of Southern African-American music by collecting, preserving, teaching and performing, asserting its importance both as a historical and living tradition. South Carolina served as a threshold for many African and Caribbean slaves entering the United States, and with them came a wealth of musical traditions and identities that ultimately tell the history of a nation and region through spirituals, blues, ragtime, jazz and protest songs. By embracing this beautiful and diverse body of music and the cultural treasure it represents, CSAM recognizes musical traditions that have not only been undervalued, but are in danger of being lost altogether.
The Phillips Collection, opened in 1921, is America’s first museum of modern art. Featuring a renowned permanent collection of nearly 2,500 works by American and European impressionist and modern artists, The Phillips is internationally recognized for both its incomparable art and its intimate atmosphere.
Supporting sponsors are Colonial Supplemental Insurance, Katherine and Clarence Davis, Shirley Mills and Heyward Bannister and DESA, Inc. This exhibition was organized by The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as part of the American Masterpieces program, with additional support from MetLife Foundation and the Henry Luce Foundation.
For more information, call 803.799.2810 or visit columbiamuseum.org.
GENERAL MUSEUM INFORMATION: The Columbia Museum of Art is South Carolina's premier international art museum with extraordinary collections of European and American fine and decorative art that span centuries. Founded in 1950, the museum opened its new building on Main Street in 1998 by transforming an urban department store to a sleek and airy, light-filled space with 25 galleries. The collections include masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, works by significant furniture and silver makers, as well as modern and contemporary art from the present time. Of particular interest are Sandro Botticelli's Nativity, Claude Monet's The Seine at Giverny and art glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The museum also offers changing exhibitions from renowned museums and educational programs that include group and public tours, lectures, films, and concert series. The museum shop is open during museum hours and on Tuesdays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Generous support to the museum is provided by the City of Columbia and Richland County.
