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Title: "Black Artists Living in the Mid-Atlantic States": Black Arts Festival 1986

Date: March 3–April 10, 1986

Location: RG 8/93, B1, F6

Contact:

Archives & Special Collections Waidner-Spahr Library Dickinson College P.O. Box 1773 Carlisle, PA 17013

717-245-1399 [email protected]

'"•.' > ....

Acknowledgements Many individuals deserve recognition Humanities; Grace Stanislaus, for their contributions to this assistant curator, The Studio exhibition and program. First of all, I Museum in Harlem; Camille Giraud would like to thank Dickinson col• Akeju, executive director, Associ• leagues and students for their ation of Community-Based Artists of essential help in organizing the Westchester, New York; Robin exhibition and presentations. Thanks Holder, coordinator, Printmaking go to Brenda Bretz, Nancy Workshop, ; David Winkelman, Michael Wajda, Caroline Stephans, Brandywine Workshop, Ruff, and Donna Senderling. The fine Philadelphia; Dr. Teri Y. Doke, arts faculty has also been helpful in executive di rector, Afro-American coordinating the artists' presen• Historical and Cultural Museum, tations with appropriate classes. Philadelphia; Oletha Devane, Barbara Diduk and James Cox Maryland State Arts Council, deserve a special note of thanks for ; Anne-Marie Nolin and their valuable advice and assistance Barbara Ho, New York State Council during every stage of this project. on the Arts; and Richard E. Likewise, Lisa Fleming, a Dickinson Siegesmund, director of the Visual senior majoring in fine arts, has Arts/Museum/Crafts Program of the devoted considerable time and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Mr. energy to the Black Arts Festival. Siegesmund was particularly helpful Special thanks go to Steven with advice during the planning MacDonald, director of the Central stages. Pennsylvania Consortium; the Finally, I would like to give special Dickinson Student Senate; and the thanks to Gilberto Wilson, Willie Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for Birch, Mary Campbell, and Vincent their financial assistance. Thanks, Smith. also, to student residents of the College's Fine Arts House and to D.R. members of the Congress of African Students for serving as· hosts for our exhibitors and speakers l\i1uch assistance was 1needed in advertising the exhibition com• petition in five states and the District of Columbia. Thanks goes to Kenneth McClain, director of minority arts, . New Jersey State Council on .the Arts; Valarie Tramell, Cristina Cultural Arts Center, Wilmington, Delaware; Alec Simpson, staff liaison to the Visual Arts Panel, The District of Columbia Commission on the, Arts and WILLIE BIRCH VINCENT SMITH GILBERTO WILSON

BLACK ARTISTS LIVING IN THE MID-ATLANTIC STATES held in conjunction with the 18TH ANNUAL BLACK ARTS FESTIVAL

March 3-April 10, 1986 The Trout Gallery Emil R. Weiss Center for the Arts Dickinson College 2 Introduction In 1969, the Congress of African This program is one of several Students of Dickinson College cultural and political activities sponsored their first Black Arts organized this year by concerned Festival. Since that time, this faculty, academic professionals, public program has been an and students at Dickinson annual event at Dickinson. The College. Our concerns are as stated purpose of the Festival is to multifaceted as the individuals bring cultural diversity to our involved. They are internally as community and to raise well as externally focused and awareness of the major contri• range from the work of the anti• butions made by blacks to apartheid divestment group to America's cultural life. Past lectures and cultural activities programs have included theater, such as this. I would not attempt music, dance, and the visual arts. to characterize each of our For the 18th-Annual Black Arts motivations in this beyond calling it an attempt to raise sensitivity Festival, being held in the first within our community. week in March, 1986, The Trout Art Gallery is pleased to be able to As it so happens, two of the participate by organizing this artists selected for our exhibition juried exhibition of black artists are overtly motivated by these living in the Mid-Atlantic states. same concerns. Through his The response to our proposed prints, Gilberto Wilson opens our exhibition from black artists living eyes to the suffering of a great in New York, New Jersey, Penn• mass of people dispersed sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, throughout the Western Hemi• and the District of Columbia was sphere, including our own region, marvelous. This was, no doubt, as the result of historical events because we had the good fortune beyond their control. Their plight, of having Dr. Mary Schmidt to be born into an alien and often Campbell, executive director of hostile world, is alluded to in his the , print series Fragments and Statia serve as our juror. Her careful, Memories. Willie Birch juxta• open, and highly sensitive poses a brig ht and inviting palette selection process confirmed all with images of poverty and that we had heard of her ability racism in our own Mid-Atlantic and professionalism. region. He attacks our compla• cency and challenges us to Her task was not a simple one: search within ourselves for Over 40 very talented artists honesty, hope, and resolve. entered the competition. From those individuals, Dr. Campbell All three artists, with their chose three outstanding artists: individual styles and subjects, Willie Birch, Vincent Smith, and challenge our categorizations of Gilberto Antonio Wilson to contemporary black art. They exhibit their work in the gallery, remind us of the diversity and and to give presentations on vitality of the black community campus during the week of the living in the Mid-Atlantic region. Black Arts Festival. Furthermore, she agreed to come to campus David Robertson and deliver the opening address Director, The Trout Art Gallery on certain aspects of contem• porary black art.

3 WILLIE BIRCH

Born in 1942 in , the America that suffers from pre• painter Willie Birch studied at meditated, as well as unin• Southern University in Baton tentional negelect - the America Rouge, Louisiana, and received that will not go away - infested his Master of Fine Arts degree with drug addiction, hunger, from the Maryland Institute racism, homelessness, urban College of Art in Baltimore in decay, sexism, and a breakdown 1973. of human values. That is, the Mr. Birch, a resident of New America that will consume all of York City, has received many us, as long as we continue to deny awards, honors, and commis• its existence. sions, and has shown his paint• I hope the viewer sees these ings in one-man and group works as a sign of our times, as an exhibitions. Recently, his work inspiration to question the world has been included in the traveling we live in, and as an impetus to exhibition, Art Against Apartheid. decide what role to play in creat• ing tomorrow. Willie Birch

Statement

These six paintings are part of a series of works in progress titled "A Personal View of Urban America." As an African/ American artist, I've come to realize that my experiences don't necessarily reflect the type of art images most of us see in art magazines like Art in America. It does speak to the human con• CHECKLIST ditions of many people living all All works are gouache on paper. over these United States and the Measurements are height and width. world. Feeding the Chickens on Avenue C, 1985 With these paintings, I want to 38 1.2 x 25 inches force the viewer to experience the Ancestral Relics, 1985 America that flashes across our 38 1 /2 x 50 inches television screens when human In Search of Humanity in a Primitive World, 1985 events reach epidemic or crisis 38 1/2 x 50 inches proportions. I want to force the Tuning Out, 1985 50 x 38 1/2 inches viewer to reflect upon those Like It Is, 1985 images only seen in passing from 38 1/2 50 inches our vehicles as we drive through a An Evening in America, 1986 "ghetto" area - the forgotten 38 1/2 x 50 inches

4 Feeding the Chickens on Avenue C

Ancestral Relics

5 In Search of Humanity in a Primitive World

Tuning Out

6 Like It Is

An Evening in America

7 VINCENT D. SMITH

Vincent Smith was born in has exhibited his work nationally, Brooklyn, New York in 1929. At in Europe, and in Africa. His work the age of 23, he studied at the Art can be seen, among other places, Students League in New York in the collections of the Museum City, and in 1955-56 he received of Modern Art and the Brooklyn scholarships to both the Brooklyn Museum. Mr. Smith holds Museum Art School and the memberships in the National Skowhegan School of Painting Conference of Artists and the and Sculpture in Maine. Mr. African-American Museum Smith, a resident of New York Association. City and an avid world traveler,

CHECKLIST Black Gold and Alligator Slim on the Beach, 1982 monoprint 39 x 49 inches (framed) Black Gold, 1982 monoprint 39 x 68 inches (framed) Personages "The Nubisns'', 1982 monoprint · 39 x 49 inches (framed) The Black Family, 1982 monoprint 39 x 49 inches (framed) Miles Ahead, 1984 monoprint 37 x 30 inches (framed) The Fa/ashes, 1984 oil and sand, dry pigments 36 x 30 inches Dagon, 1984 oil and sand, dry pigments 49 x 39 inches

8 Black Gold and Alligator Slim on the Beach

Black Gold

9 Personages "The Nubians"

The Black Family

10 ,_ )"-

Miles Ahead

11 GILBERTO ANTONIO WILSON

Born on the Dutch Island of The series on display in the Aruba, the Philadelphia-based Trout Gallery are "Fragments." printmaker Gilberto Antonio Some fragments from my Afro• Wilson is a recent graduate of Caribbean roots that I gathered Temple University's Tyler School since coming to the United States of Art (1980). He received his BFA at the age of 14. from The Cooper Union School of One of the recurring images we Art and Science in New York City see in these "Fragments" is of an in 1978. Since that time, Mr. old woman, posted like a handbill, Wilson has taught graphic arts worn through, covered and re• and photography at The covered, against a brick wall. That Basement Workshop, Phila• is a fragment of Diaspora, worn delphia's Community High with time, covered and recovered, School, and Prints in Progress. still standing even when our Between 1980 and 1985, he has backs are against the wall. been an artist-in-residence at the My artwork is essentially about Brandywine Graphics Workshop all of us, torn from there, trans• in Philadelphia. Mr. Wilson has planted here, pulling fragments exhibited his work in group and together to build a way of life. one-man shows si nee · 1980, in Philadelphia, New York, Rome, and Atlanta. Gilberto Antonio Wilson

Statement

My work cannot be discussed without introducing the subject of Diaspora, the Brazilian term meaning "the dispersion of people throughout the world." As one journeys through the Mid• Atlantic states, taking in the faces CHECKLIST and life-styles of the black people who were settled here, a living Fragments Series. Four silkscreen rainbow starts to immerge, hues and mixed media prints. each from alabaster to umber. We are measuring 22 x 15 inches, 1985 the results of Diaspora, the African has lived it, the Brazilian Statia Memories Series. Five silk• has defined it, my artwork screen and mixed media prints. each embodies it. measuring 15 x 22 inches, 1985

12 Fragm ents Series

13 Fragments Series

Fragments Series

14 Statia Memories Series

Statia Memories Series

15 Statia Memories Series

I- I

Statia Memories Series

16 ...

Statia Memories Series

Catalogue layout by Nancy Winkelman Graphic on cover by Franc P. Nunoo-Ouarcoo Printed at Plank's Suburban Press Dickinson College Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17013 1986