MS01.01.03 - Box 02 - Folder 23 - The Harmon Foundation, [undated], Part 1

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entered that met their requirements or there were no works entered in a specific field. But^Brady insisted on^[strike - the Harmon Foundation] honoring a number of Blacks during that first year. Countee Cullen ^a writer and the son of a Harlem Baptist minister^ was awarded the first prize for excellence in literature. James Weldon Johnson, another writer and a principal officer in the NAACP, received the second prize in ^literature^ [strike -in the same category]. Arthur Schomberg * was awarded a prize for educational excellence. [strike: Mr.] C. C. Spaulding, a businessman in Durham, North Carolina, received first prize for establishing a life insurance plan for Blacks which he used to found an educational foundation for Black men and women attending North Carolina College for Negroes, #17, now North Carolina Central University in Durham. Of all the recipients who were given awards that year, none received the praise that Brady heaped on Spaulding. In later years, she encouraged Sculptor William Artis to model a terra cotta head of [strike: Spaulding] the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance executive. In the fine arts category, Palmer Hayden was awarded first prize ^in art ^ for his painting "The Schooner. #18 Hayden used his prize money, along with a $3,000.00 grant received from a patron to pursue his studies in Paris where he became the private pupil of Clivette Lefevre at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. [ at top of page ? ? ?]in Paris during the next six years. Upon his return to New York in 1932, he was invited by Brady to become an employee of the Harmon Foundation, a position he retained until the Foundation ceased operations. The second prize and the bronze medal went to Hale A. Woodruff. #19 Woodruff, who was the recipient of money from another patron, along with the $100 prize from the Foundation to travel to Europe. He resigned his job with the Y.M.C.A. in New York and sailed for Paris in 1927. ^He enrolled ^ [strike: and began studying] at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and Studio Painting. Both Hayden and Woodruff exchanged letters with Brady during their stay in Paris, each given a detailed account of their progress in art and occasionally asking for additional funds. It was there that he assimilated his Impressionist style. In 1927, the second year of the Harmon Foundation's awards for excellence in the visual arts, an even larger number of Black artists entered their works. The gold medal ^in Painting ^ went to Laura Wheeler

* the Peurto Rician born bibliophile who had worked hard to help Black Americans research their own African past

18 Palmer Hayden's Christian name was Peyton Cole Hedgeman. For a full discussion of the subject see: David Driskell "The Flowering of the Harlem Renaissance: The Art of Aaron Douglas, Meta Warwick Fuller, Palmer Hayden and William H. Johnson

[on side of page] ? ? ? convinced ? ? Harvey of Boston to purchase the work for the sum of $125

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Mary S. Campbell, David C. Driskell, David Lewis and Deborah Ryan, Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987), P.

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Waring, a portrait artist whom Brady had admired after seeing her work at Cheyney Teachers College for Negroes, the only such land grant institution north of the Mason/Dixon line. The second gold medal was given to William Edourard Scott of Indianapolis, one of Henry O.Tanner's former students in Paris. John Wesley Hardry received the Bronze award. Honorable mentions were given to Malvin Gray Johnson, Aaron Douglas, James L. Allen, Hilyard Robinson, Paul R. Williams and Allan Freelon. 21 In addition to the awards donated by the Harmon Foundation to outstanding Black artists, philanthropist and well known art patron, Otto H. Kahn began donating a $250.00 award to any artist for the best single work exclusive of those receiving a Harmon Award. [strike: Mr.] Kahn stipulated that his name [strike: was to] should remain unknown except to the winning artist. 22 * Sargent Claude Johnson the Oakland, California Ceramicest and sculpture was the recipient of the first Otto H. Kahn Award for his terra cotta head of a young Black waif called "Sammy". In 1928, the Harmon Foundation and the Commission on the Church and Race Relations of the Federal Council of Churches joined together to sponsor the [strike: first] ongoing national showing of works by artists of African descent. The exhibition opened ^that year^ at International House at 500 Riverside Drive in New York City on January 6 and closed January 17. Eighty-seven oil paintings, etchings, lithographs and sculptures by forty artists were exhibited. Portrait paintings formed the greatest number of works in the exhibition. "The Old Snuff Dipper" by Archibald Motley received first prize; May Howard Jackson received second prize and Malvin Gray Johnson received the Otto H. Kahn Award for a painting. 23 During the less than two weeks that the exhibition was on view, attendance was over 2,500.

* George Haynes of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America contacted Otto H. Kahn on Brady's advice and solicited the funds, on an annual basis, that enabled the award to be given in his name.

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in a letter address to Haynes [crossed out: Mr.] dated January 20, 1928, Kahn wrote:

Dear Dr. Haynes: I am in receipt of your letter of the 19th of January. I appreciate the spirit of your suggestion, but, while I should be glad to have my felicitations conveyed to Mr. Johnson privately, I should prefer not to write him a formal letter and not to have my name mentioned in connection with any public ceremony. Faithfully yours, Otto Kahn

[Crossed out: Kahn wanted]

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Columnists Claude A Barnett of The Associated Negro Press, Incorporated of Chicago, and many of the Presidents of Black institutions of higher learning throughout the South. But it was also Brady's intention to obtain support for Black creativity from sources other than the Harmon Foundation when making the acquaintance of people around the nation.

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