Your guide to the National Black Arts Festival

“Unexpected Encounters” is the theme of the 2011 National Black Arts Festival, and, indeed, there are many acquaintances worth making (or renewing) as the popular event hits full stride this week. Centered in downtown and Midtown Atlanta, especially next weekend when Centennial Olympic Park becomes the festival’s nexus, the NBAF continues through July 17. Here’s …

Fanizani Akuda – an Artist Par Excellence

Now that Fanizani is no more, the most intriguing question we need to ask ourselves is what did we learn from him? Surely, 50 years in any art genre carries with it some experience, wisdom and direction and whenever possible we should benefit from that. Before we talk about that let’s quickly talk about vultures. …

Fowler Museum Presents Retrospective Of Cuban American Artist José Bedia

The Fowler Museum at UCLA presents “Transcultural Pilgrim: Three Decades of Work by José Bedia,” an exhibition that brings together 28 large-scale figurative paintings and drawings and a newly commissioned, site-specific installation to offer a comprehensive retrospective on this acclaimed member of Cuba’s “Generation of the ’80s,” the pioneering young artists who incorporated Cuban vernacular …

University of Delaware Art Conservationists Restore Historic African-American Mural

From outside the deserted Wilmington building, passersby would have no idea that an authentic, nearly 70-year-old Aaron Douglas painting dominates the living room inside. Douglas, the forefather of African-American art and a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance, painted the mural in the home of Dr. William Goens in 1942. The scene, with its shades …

DeSouza essay ‘in response to’ Art Speak

Paying homage seems so reasonable, so modest, such an honorable thing to do. But like the long-winded toast that becomes an aria to me, me, me, or the oversized introduction that leaves the reader with little appetite to read the book itself, the homage can be perilously self-reflexive and solipsistic. Perhaps that’s why artists today …

Telling the History of Black Percussion Through Art and Dance

Step Afrika! Hit the Mark When the drum was banned during slavery in the United States, it was seen as a weapon, a powerful instrument that could send messages to incite the Africans in bondage to rise up and revolt against their enslavers. And so the drum was “taken away.” Intonations of this pivotal time …

Black Expo Summer Celebration

Ecumenical Service Light of the World Christian Church, 4646 Michigan Road. Speaker: The Rev. Dr. Kevin Cosby, senior pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church. Host pastor: Bishop T. Garrott Benjamin Jr. Parking and shuttle service available from the International School, 4330 Michigan Road. 7 p.m. (317) 925-2702 or www.indianablackexpo.com. SATURDAY July 9 Film Festival Indianapolis …

Visual arts to dominate National Black Arts Festival’s opening weekend

The National Black Arts Festival officially launches July 7, but most of the performances fall over the closing July 15-17 weekend at Centennial Olympic Park, other downtown sites and at Midtown’s Woodruff Arts Center. The main offerings the fest’s first weekend, scattered across the metro area, are in the visual arts, with an abundance of …

Notre Dame Culture Center Approved

The South Bend Redevelopment Commission has approved a plan to turn the Hansel Center on the city’s west side into the University of Notre Dame Center for Arts and Culture. The university says the centerpiece of the $2.5 million project will be a fine-art print studio. The Hansel Center, an icon of South Bend’s West …

Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art plans a ‘jazzy’ summer

Bye-bye, Andy Warhol. Sayonara, Jun Kaneko. Farewell, Richmond Barthé and Helene Fielder. The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art (www.georgeohr.org) set the bar awfully high with its opening exhibits, which until recently occupied the galleries since the grand opening of Phase I of the $35 million museum in November 2010: prints by Pop artist Andy Warhol; enormous …

High begins exhibit from Atlanta-based artist

Atlanta-based artist Radcliffe Bailey will be exhibiting 37 works including paintings, sculptures, mixed media, photos on metal and others at the High Museum of Art through September 11. Bailey is a renouned African American artist whose works are represented in major collections around the nation including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, the …

August Wilson Center shifting focus to local artists

By Sara Bauknecht, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The August Wilson Center for African American Culture will shift from focusing on presenting out-of-town artists to producing more of its own programming next season in an attempt to brighten the spotlight on local talent and provide more opportunities for the city’s dancers, actors, musicians and visual artists. President and …

Dayton Art Institute Director Janice Driesbach to Retire, Interim Director Appointed

The Dayton Art Institute’s (DAI) Director and CEO, Janice Driesbach, announced that she will retire at the end of July. Driesbach, who was hired in November 2007 and began her tenure in January 2008, came to Dayton from Lincoln, Nebraska, where she headed the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden at the University of …