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MS01.03.03.B07.F09.0013
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a community of shared values such as a particular black community, a social class, a school of thought, a school of artists, etc. (eg Romare Bearden, Manoel Araujo).
The above categories are broad and flexible. They can be increased, expanded, contracted, sub-divided or eliminated depending upon the works surveyed and selected. They are helpful in structuring our inquiry and focussing the questions that we ask of the artworks. In addition they allow us to select the strongest, most dynamic pieces from a wide corpus of artists in both countries. In all, we expect to present and discuss about 100 works.
[underscore] potential advisors[/underscore]
1. Lowrie Sims—Metropolitan Museum of Art
2. John Vlach—George Washington University
3. Michael J. Turner—Washington, DC
4. Mikelle Omari Smith—UC, Long Beach
5. Didi and Juana dos Santos—Salvador, Bahia
6. Nani Dzidzinyou—Brown University
[underscore] possible titles [/underscore]
1. Searchings: Self and Society in Afro-American and
Afro-Brazilian Art
2. Oceans Apart, Minds Together: ...........................
3. Quests: .............................
4. Black Worlds: .........................
5. Shades of Black: ..........................
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MS01.03.03.B07.F09.0015
[EMBOSSED LETTERHEAD]
[IMAGE: LOGO]
CALIFORNIA AFRO-AMERICAN MUSEUM A CALIFORNIA STATE MUSEUM
[EMBOSSED OFFICER LIST ON LEFT-SIDE OF LETTERHEAD]
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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[EMBOSSED BOTTOM OF LETTERHEAD] 600 State Drive. Exposition Park Los Angeles. California 90037 (213) 744-7432
MS01.03.03.B07.F09.0016
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Mr. Steven Lavine -Page Two- July 21, 1987
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Professor, Art Department, Cleveland State University, an internationally renowned scholar in the field of African art with an emphasis on the Yoruba tradition.
The California Afro-American Museum, chartered in 1977, is the first state mandated museum in the United States, dedicated to the arts, history and humanities of Afro-Americans. The museum is governed by a seven member state board of directors and is supported by an annual budget allocated by the California Legislature. A non-profit foundation comprised of 20 leaders in their respective fields, has also been established and which serves as a conduit for private funds, grants and awards to be used in support of CAAM's exhibitions, collections and other programs. Since the opening of its new facility two years ago, CAAM has originated extensive educational and exhibition programs which have traveled to many parts of California and the country. Sixteen exhibitions have been held at the Los Angeles site including Black Olympians: 1904-1984, Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art, 1800-1950, and Emerging California Artists.
Other programs are teachers in-service training, Adopt-A-School, Artist in Residency, year round workshops, educational video productions and develoment of a research library.
Research is of high priority to CAAM, as there is much to be explored in the study of Afro-American history and culture. The museum believes that the scholarly research forming the basis for the exhibition and catalogue "Introspectives" will be of significant value to the study of cultural linkages in the African diaspora.
Included in this packet is the proposal and budget for the exhibition as well as several museum generated publications. We will be happy to provide any additional information you might require. We sincerely hope that the Rockefeller Foundation will look favorably on our request for support of the exhibition and catalogue.
Sincerely,
[SIGNED: Aurelia Brooks] (rj)
Aurelia Brooks Museum Director
AB:rj Attachments
MS01.03.03.B07.F09.0017
draft proposal INTROSPECTIVES CONTEMPORARY ART BY AMERICANS AND BRAZILIANS OF AFRICAN DESCENT
CONTEMPORARY ART BY AMERICANS AND BRAZILIANS OF AFRICAN DESCENT
Objective
The CAAM seeks -funds -for an exhibition that explores in the art of contemporary Afro-Americans and Afro—Brazi1ians the fundamental issue o-f identity: how these artists view themselves in relation to their African heritage, their status as citizens, and their communities.
Background
The histories of peoples of African descent in the New World, while distinct in many ways, are bound together by issues of color and slavery. In Brazil, more than four million Africans were brought over during the 300 years of slavery. The conditions of their bondage in Brazil varied according to region and historical period. As policies of inter—marriage developed, the nature of slavery depended on one's shade of blackness. Thus, for various reasons, certain aspects of African culture were able to survive and some even thrived despite repeated attempts to destroy them. This, together with the massive influx of primarily Yoruba people from West Africa throughout much of the 19th century and up to the end of slavery, assured the continuity of an African identity alongside an emerging Brazilian one.
In America, a briefer period of slavery involving smaller munbers of Africans under more stringent conditions made the continuation of African lifestyles more difficult. Here the color line was drawn in blood. Despite such conditions, or perhaps because of them, Afro-Americans creatively transformed their African-ness to confront a new reality. These worst of times demanded the deepest, strongest convictions about self-hood and self-worth. From such challenges, they forged new cultural and artistic traditions to shape and express their African-Americanness.
The definitions of self emerging among Afro-Brazi1ians and Afro-Americans and those imposed upon them during the period of slavery officially ended with Emancipation (1863 in the US, 1888 in Brazil). Emancipation changed everything, and it changed nothing. It altered the legal status of people from property to persons and promised freedom and equality, but it changed little in the real lives of blacks. The contradiction between the ideal and the real created by the Emancipation is a fundamental reason why self-indentity has been and continues to be such a compelling issue in the work of Afro-American and Afro-Brazi1ian artists. 1
MS01.03.03.B07.F09.0018
[underscored] Rationale [/underscored]
Given the significance of the act of Emancipation and its impact on the issue of identity, we believe that 1988, the 100th anniversary of Brazilian Emancipation, is the perfect opportunity to mount a major exhibition that not only explores the present thinking of Afro-Brazi1ian artists, but compares them with contemporary Afro-American artists. This is the first time an exhibit of this scope and focus has been attempted. Through the art of both well-known and promising new artists, it will examine the present situation of two peoples of African descent in the New World.
The perspective of the exhibition is also novel. It may lead to a re-evaluation of past approaches to art by persons of African descent in the Americas by exploring [underscored] how [/underscored] this art is to be defined. Art is the shape of thought as well as the shape of time. As a construction, it reveals the ethos of a time and place and the thinking of the artist. Like the individuals who create it, art shapes, and is shaped by, culture and history. With art as the focus, the exhibit examines artists' orientations and intentions, their concerns as revealed in the artworks themselves, as a way to consider the present state of American and Brazilian societies and the recent past.
Since their ancestors were first brought to the New World, Afro-Americans and Afro-Brazi1ians have been finding solutions to their particular problems. They have been formulating ways of living, not merely for survival, but for the affirmation of self. As they 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.
[underscored] The Exhibition [/underscored]
Given this perspective, contemporary Afro-American and Afro-Brazi1ian art may be grouped into three broad categories based upon its primary focus:
1) [underscored] Constructions of Africa [/underscored]
This group includes works that range from re-creations of forms presumed to have been used in Africa, whether sacred or secular; re-formulations of presumed African art forms (eg Afro-American and Afro-Brazi1ian altars for ancestral gods); and images of Africa from a variety of points of view (whether idealized or critical); to works that intentionally deny the existence or impact of Africa.
2) [underscored] Constructions of Self as citizens in the Larger Society [/underscored]
These works comment primarily on issues of citizenship; heroism, patriotism, oppression, etc., that is, national concerns. Some
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