Erica Hobbs
| Special to The Detroit News
The Detroit Institute of Arts’ new African American art galleries “Reimagine African American Art” open to the public Saturday featuring 50 works and a new central location adjacent to Rivera Court.
The installation, organized by the museum’s Center for African American Art, encompasses four galleries that tell the story of African American history chronologically from 1840 to 1986, capturing time periods and themes that include Harlem Renaissance, Social Realism, the Civil Rights era and the Black Arts Movement.
“I think the four galleries that we are presenting today bring together powerful artists … and quotes from influential voices that illuminate crucial moments, key moments in the history of this country,” said DIA Director Salvador Salort-Pons during a preview event Wednesday.
The exhibits feature a variety of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography and furniture, with artists including Allie McGhee, Robert Seldon Duncanson, Augusta Savage, Hale Woodruff and Thomas Day.
Valerie Mercer, curator and head of the Center for African American Art at the DIA, said the exhibit highlights Detroit’s majority African American community.
“(It’s important) their culture is represented and respected here at the DIA,” she said.
DIA’s Chairman of the Board Lane Coleman also announced a goal to raise $16 million endowment to support the new galleries and have raised $4 million to date.
The installation is the culmination of decades of the museum’s commitment to African American art. The DIA began its African American art collection in 1943, established the Center for African American Art in 2000 and said it appointed the first curator in an encyclopedic American museum dedicated to African American art when it hired Mercer in 2001.
The galleries open to the public Saturday. General admission to the museum is free for residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. The museum is located at 5200 Woodward Avenue, Detroit. For details, visit www.dia.org.