Monday, September 30, 2013

Museums in New York City: Harlem Studio Museum

By Tia Dryer


For some considerable time, the Studio Museum in Harlem was the singular significant cultural institution for art by African Americans. It's still one of the most important museums in N. Y, and on the planet , for art that chronicles the African-American experience, especially but not totally in urban environments. The work demonstrated here includes African-American works and 20th Century Afro-Caribbean pieces, as well as traditional African art. The social aspect of art is very much on show in the permanent collection of the Studio Museum, as well as a consistent theme of searching for the African identity in an American context.

The Studio Museum has gathered a extreme amount of recognition from the community of museums in New York City, in total due to its Artists in Residence program, which allows one or more up and coming studio and gallery artists of African descent to dwell on location while they create. This allows the artists to create art, network in the community and begin successful careers. Also, the museum stands in as a center for the Harlem arts community by hosting lectures, panels, dialogues, classes and performances on a wide range of subjects related to the African-American experience.



Found on 125th St, a little more than a dozen blocks north of Central Park in Harlem, the Studio Museum is very much an organic product of its environment. This Harlem museum is close to numerous other famous locales, including the legendary Apollo Theater. Down the road, the NYC Public Libraryis 1 or 2 blocks east, and there are also a bunch of parks, including the Morningstar Park and Central Park. The area itself is an unprecedented landmark, full of plaques and notes of importance. Once a ghetto for released slaves and people fleeing the domineering Jim Crow laws in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Harlem changed into a cultural treasure in the 1920s and continues to play a vital role in African-American culture.

The permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem includes over 1,600 works by prominent African-American artists, both in the Harlem community and round the country. These artists, including Robert Colescott, Melvin Edwards, Terry Adkins, Hector Hyppolite, Lois Mailou Jones, Norman Lewis, Betye Saar, Nari Ward and others have had an effect on the art world as well as throughout the bigger African-American community. The general theme of all the work within this museum is the Black identity; the museum is a vital and interesting location for everyone with a healthy interest in American history to visit and take in. Specific themes include black liberation politics, dance, expressionism, roots and music, as well as the subjects of bigotry, sexism and the urban experience. These subjects could be questionable to some visitors, but they represent a punctual, important discourse within the larger American culture about the perceptions and roles of African-Americans in it, and it's one of many important museums in New York to find out about a variety of concepts, old and new.




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