By Omari Foote, Howard University News Service
Anacostia Community Museum will debut its exhibit, “The Bold and Beautiful,” to celebrate Black D.C. artists and their educators this month.
“The more you dig into the history of Black artist educators in [D.C.], the more you realize that there really is a lineage, a tradition, across generations,” Samir Meghelli, curator at Anacostia Community Museum, said.
Meghelli said the Anacostia Community Museum was founded as one of the first museums in the District to consistently feature Black art.
“We were founded in 1967 and at that time, we were one of the few institutions in the city that was really consistently exhibiting the work of local black artists and educators,” he said.
He said they want to continue that legacy with the “Bold and Beautiful” exhibit.
“The exhibition itself was inspired by the really rich but overlooked tradition of artists, black artists, educators in Washington, D.C,” said Meghelli, “You know, Washington is so often overlooked by New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, but there’s a really rich history of Artists and art educators here.”
Meghelli explains that it was very important for this exhibit to specifically spotlight Black art educators in the city.
“So often, we may celebrate one or two artists, but rarely do we ask, ‘Who were their teachers? Who taught them? Trained them? Cultivated their skills and careers?”
The exhibit will begin with a panel discussion with filmmaker Topper Carew and the founding deputy director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Kinshasha Holmin Conwill.
The panel, entitled “The Mecca of Arts Education: Howard University’s History and Legacy in the Arts,” will discuss Howard University’s impact on D.C.’s art community.
Beyond the panel discussion, the exhibit will feature Howard University art professor Lois Mailou Jones.
Jones was a professor in the Howard art department for over 40 years, according to Moorland Spingarn Research Center. She was a painter in practice but had a background in design.
Howard graphic design professor Raven Featherstone, daughter of former Howard professor Starmanda Bullock, said that she grew up watching Jones and her mother teaching Black artists.
“They really pushed their students to be great, successful artists in their own right,” she said.
Featherstone has been at Howard for over a decade and said she believes that D.C. did an excellent job investing in those professors as they tried to grow Howard’s art department.
Shemaya Bridgewater, a junior TV and Film major from Trinidad, said that taking classes in Howard University’s College of Fine Arts (COFA) was the first time she was taught to take art seriously.
She expressed that, growing up, art was fun to do but never something she thought of pursuing seriously.
“Being in COFA and being graded on creativity and graded on artistic techniques makes me feel validated in the fact that what I create is something to be taken seriously,” she said.
In addition to Jones, Howard graduates Elizabeth Catlett and James Porter will also be featured in the exhibit.
Outside of Howard”, the exhibit will feature educators at city high schools.
“Hopefully, people will walk away with a deeper understanding and a greater appreciation for the collective genius of the community that has called Washington home,” said Meghelli.
The exhibit will debut on March 23 and remain available until Mar. 2, 2025.
