Black Futures in Art
We're Not Just History
EXTENDED THROUGH APRIL 7th
Exhibition Documentation
Creative Nations Sacred Space Guest Exhibition: NAACP Boulder County
Exhibition Curated by Adderly Grant-Lord
Read move about the exhibition at CU Independent
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Adderly Grant-Lord; Painter, Curator and Producer of: Black Futures in Art: We’re Not Just History
SaToro Tafura; Sculptor
Helen Masvikeni Masango; Photographer
Verline “Mijiza” Geaither; Painter
Lydia Kearney Carlis; Photographer, AI Painter
Agnes Nyanhongo; Sculptor
BLACK FUTURES IN ART: WE’RE NOT JUST HISTORY
This exhibition is in direct response to the pain felt by my daughter and so many of our Black brothers, sisters, and comrades, who are invisibilized and the lack of their worth reflected in Boulder County.
This body of work exhibit art to provoke introspection and to see Black Folk in Boulder and around the world, past and present reality through the felt and lived experience from the perspective of the artist. The hope is that through this exhibition, you will be able to celebrate the fullness of our humanity.
“We are not magic; we are fully human and fully divine. We are beautiful, strong, with diverse talents and gifts beyond our imagination. We don’t make something out of nothing; we recognize, extract, and enhance value in everything we do! We imagine with brilliant minds and create with skilled hands. We take broken, discarded trash and create treasures greater than the sum of any individual part. In a world that either ignores, denigrates or outright appropriates our culture, art helps us to imagine our infinite possibilities; all the magic is within us,” said Lydia Kearney Carlis, an AI artist who generously included her art at various exhibits during black history month.
Let this be one of many visual experiences and conversations, so that our children will feel their worth in this space that is theirs to claim. We will all be enriched as a community when we can all see ourselves as essential and worthy. Without US, this community is incomplete.
How can we fully express who we are when we are not represented? I have come to the realization that trying to explain who we are is not penetrable. Some will not emotionally identify with us. I cannot instill this to you, so instead as a gift to my daughter and the next generations to come; let this body of work show the Evidence of who we really are!
Tonight’s exhibit is one of five exhibits across Boulder County. You are encouraged to view each one. Other host galleries our First Congregational Church, The Gallery @ Bus Stop Apartments, Dairy Arts Center, East Simpson in Coffee Co., and East Window Gallery.
This may be your first visual conversation. I implore you not to let it be the last!
