Description

We are honored to work with the renowned artist and scholar, Dr. Curlee Raven Holton, as our guest curator to present an exceptional gateway exhibition to the distinctive artwork, history, and studio practice of 44 African American artists. We look forward to sharing this exhibition with you. This year, Mystic Museum of Art (MMoA) highlights the importance of access to the pathways that lead to creative careers. Mapping these pathways, discerning the barriers to them, and forging new pathways where none existed, lead not only to extraordinary works of art, but to a richer, more comprehensive conversation that we can have as a country and as members of a world community. Historically, the conventional Western European road to the arts led through the study of neoclassical painting and sculpture in the academies of Europe, to the patronage of the elite, Access to patrons and familiarity with their tastes and traditions was paramount. Artists of color have consistently been excluded from such access. The tastes and traditions of the affluent were far removed from the lived experience of minorities, whose histories and cultures were suppressed by mainstream cultural, historical, and economic conventions