Continuing with The Studio Museum in Harlem ~ outside the walls, inHarlem announced its next two projects in and around the community, in collaboration with Marcus Garvey Park Alliance and The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
The Studio Museum in Harlem is also in the news this month with the exhibiting news that J. Paul Getty Trust announced the name of the recipients of J. Paul Getty medals, with three awardees ~ and one of them is……Thelma Golden, Director and chief curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem. Other awardees are sculptor Richard Serra and Agnes Gund, President Emerita of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Next up ~ Firelei Báez: Joy Out of Fire will open on May 1st, located at the Latimer/Edison Gallery at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
As described by inHarlem, “For Firelei Báez: Joy Out of Fire, the artist is creating imaginative portraits—“visual road maps,” in her words—celebrating the complex histories of notable black women of the United States and the Caribbean who made their mark on the twentieth century as artists, authors, activists, entertainers, educators, and public officials.
Working closely with NYPL Schomburg Center staff, Báez has researched the lives of women whose archives are housed at the Schomburg Center, such as Maya Angelou, Jean Blackwell Hutson, and Ada “Bricktop” Smith, and has explored additional archival holdings to find insights into other figures, such as Oprah, Maritcha Remond Lyons, and Shirley Graham Du Bois. The results will be as many as a dozen intricate new works, which will incorporate materials such as reproductions of archival photographs, notes, diaries, letters and manuscripts.
Although the works will evoke the lives of individual women—especially women whose stories Báez wants to bring out of obscurity—the works will not be portrait likenesses in the conventional sense. Rather, the ensemble will create a celebratory space in the gallery of the Schomburg Center, imparting something of the joy that these extraordinary women brought out of the fire of their lives, as they shared their concerns and ideas and gave one another support and inspiration across the generations.”
Firelei Báez: Joy Out of Fire will be on view from May 1 to September 29, 2018 at Latimer/Edison Gallery at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Lenox Avenue at 135th Street in Harlem.
June 16th will bring inHarlem back to Marcus Garvey Park, with the installation Maren Hassinger: Monuments.
Also described by inHarlem, “Maren Hassinger: Monuments will take the form of eight site-specific sculptures installed for approximately one year in Marcus Garvey Park, beginning in June 2018. Working in the tradition of her earlier projects such as Wreath (1978), Hassinger will use branches to create forms that respond to aspects of the park’s landscape—an outcropping of rock, a rectangle near flower beds, an oval near the pool. A Harlem resident who regards Marcus Garvey Park as her neighborhood green space, Hassinger will create the works with the assistance of volunteers from the Studio Museum’s Teen Leadership Council and Expanding the Walls program, so that Monuments will be a project made in Harlem and for Harlem.
Hallie Ringle said, “We’re reaching across the generations, and across both indoor and outdoor space, to present these projects by Maren Hassinger and Firelei Báez with the collaboration of our wonderful partner institutions. These new inHarlem exhibitions touch on themes of community, creative energy, respect for the earth, and histories both told and untold. Thanks to everyone who has joined with us, we are thrilled to be able to reach out to our neighbors in Harlem through these exceptional projects.”
Novella Ford, Associate Director of Public Programs and Exhibitions at the Schomburg Center, said “The Schomburg Center is excited to partner with the Studio Museum to bring Firelei Báez’s work to our patrons. The inHarlem program is quickly turning into an ongoing creative partnership, with artists finding inspiration for new creative works in our extensive archives. What began with Derrick Adams: Patrick Kelly, The Journey now continues with Firelei Báez’s project, allowing us to expand our work in advancing public knowledge of the global black experience in new and innovative ways.”
“Connie Lee, President of the Marcus Garvey Park Alliance, (and Public Art Initiative) said, “Our collaboration with the Studio Museum on the first inHarlem project with the installation of Simon Leigh’s extraordinary sculptures raised the experience of Marcus Garvey Park to a new level for everyone in our community. We are proud that such a distinguished artist as Maren Hassinger, with her great sensitivity to the natural world, is now creating works that will deepen our visitors’ connection to the park’s beloved landscape.”
“Parks is pleased to partner with The Studio Museum in Harlem once again, bringing public art to Marcus Garvey Park,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP. “We are honored to be a part of the Studio Museum’s golden anniversary celebration and we look forward to presenting this profoundly meaningful group of works by Maren Hassinger to the surrounding communities and visitors to the park.”
Check out interview with Maren Hassinger.
Both exhibitions are organized by Hallie Ringle, Assistant Curator at The Studio Museum in Harlem.
While you’re in Marcus Garvey Park, visit the Public Art Initiative/Marcus Garvey Park Alliance current installation, Atlas of the Third Millennium by artist Jorge Luis Rodriguez, on view to October 1, 2018.
Excited to soon experience the works of Firelei Baez and Maren Hassinger. Thank you for the shout out for “Atlas of the Third Millennium” by Jorge Luis Rodriguez, 1980-81 Artist in Residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem. Atlas is on view through October 2018 at Marcus Garvey Park, Oval Lawn off Madison Avenue between 122/123 Sts.