Events at the Center for Documentary Studies

October 17, 7 p.m. - Legacy of the Blues: A Conversation with Tim Duffy, founder of Music Maker, and performances by Algia May Hinton and Lightnin' Wells
November 5, 3-5 p.m. - Legacy of the Photographic Image: Learn about conserving our photographic legacy through traditional and digital techniques. With Jerry Cotton, photographic archivist, UNC Library at Chapel Hill, and Leslie Paisley, conservator of paper, Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Massachusetts. Reception to follow.
November 28, 7 p.m. - "Say Amen Somebody": A cinematic celebration of gospel music, featuring performances from Professor Thomas A. Dorsey, Mother Willie Mae Ford Smith, The Barrett Sisters, and The O'Neal Twins.

To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities acknowledges and celebrates these institutions' efforts to preserve and present their invaluable treasures. the collections of the six institutions featured in the exhibition -- Clark Atlanta University, Fisk University, Hampton University, Howard University, North Carolina Central University, and Tuskegee University -- represent some of the most significant examples of an indispensable heritage. This presentation of nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American, Native American, and other American art provides an essential opportunity to see the work of African American artists in the context of the work of their peers.

To Conserve a Legacy was conceived in 1995 as a cooperative venture to locate, research, conserve, catalogue, and exhibit works from the six participating HBCUs. The 260 paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and sculptures have been organized into six themes for the exhibition and catalogue by curators Richard J. Powell, chair, Department of Art and Art History, Duke University, and Jock Reynolds, director, Yale University Art Gallery, former director of the Addison Gallery of American Art.

Jacob Lawrence, Palm Sunday, 1956. Used by permission of North Carolina Central University Art Museum.

Photographs in the collections of historically black colleges and universities were widely used for publicity and fundraising and in ways that responded to derogatory images and ideas about African Americans. A series of photographs taken by Leigh Richmond Miner in 1907 documented the work and leisure activities of two "typical" Hampton students, Portia Peyton and Alamancy Evans. The photographs served as "evidence" that Hampton's unique educational system was successful in improving the lives of its students. Photographs such as Portia Ironing turned the real-life drudgery of manual labor into something morally uplifting and visibly loving. Pictures depicting young, attractive, scholarly, and well-dressed African American men and women were ammunition against those in society who would deny African Americans their rights and privileges as full citizens.

Minnie Evans, Jesus Christ, 1963. Used by permission of North Carolina Central University Art Museum.

Other To Conserve a Legacy websites:

Events at the Center for Documentary Studies