MS01.03.03.B07.F09.0015

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CALIFORNIA AFRO-AMERICAN MUSEUM
A CALIFORNIA STATE MUSEUM

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GEORGE DEUKMEJIAN
Governor

STATE ADVISORY BOARD

ELIZABETH MITCHELL
President

REV. JOHN H. LANE
Vice President

ERIC GIVENS
Treasurer

TERESA HUGHES
Assemblywoman
47th District

BILL GREENE
Senator
27th District

ROGER DASH, Ed.D.

CHARLENE MEEKS

ALTERNATES

PERRY PARKS
Secretary

WALTER BACKSTROM

AURELIA BROOKS
Museum Director

July 21, 1987

Mr. Steven Lavine
Associate Director,
Arts a Humanities Program
The Rockefeller Foundation
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10036

Dear Mr. Lavine:

The Board of Trustees of the California Afro-American Museum (CAAM)
Foundation is requesting a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to
assist the CAAM in the development and implementation of a major
exhibition and catalogue planned for December, 1988. A projected budget
of $[REDACTED] has been determined and is outlined in the attachment to
this letter.

The exhibition, "Introspectives: Contemporary Artby Americans &
Brazilians of African Descent" (working title) will explore in the art
of contemporary Afro-Americans and Afro-Brazilians, the fundamental
issue of identity: how these artists view themselves in relation to
their African heritage, their status as citizens, and their
communities. While many of these artists did not forget their African
traditions, they chose not to simply retain or preserve the old ways.
As their forebearers had in Africa, they continued to invent traditions
in the New World, constructing and transforming themselves and, in the
process, American and Brazilian cultures as well. Their art expresses
these strategies as it conveys polyvalent attitudes toward Africa—from
devotion to disinterest.

The exhibition is scheduled for 1988 to coincide with the Centennial
anniversary of Brazilian Emancipation. Given the significance of
Emancipation and its impact on the issue of identity, a major exhibition
exploring the present thinking of Afro-Brazilian artists and comparing
them with contemporary Afro-American artists is a timely and appropriate
effort.

This is the first time an exhibition of this scope has been attempted.
The perspective of the exhibition is also unique and may lead to a
re-evaluation of past approaches to art by persons of African descent by
exploring how this art is to be defined.

The world’s leading authority on the art of Afro-Americans, Dr. David
Driskell, former chairman, Art Department, University of Maryland will
co-curate the exhibition with Dr. Henry Drewal, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow,

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600 State Drive. Exposition Park Los Angeles. California 90037 (213) 744-7432