Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Museums in New York City: Studio Museum in Harlem

By Tia Dryer


For some considerable time, the Studio Museum in Harlem was the singular important cultural center for art by American artists of African descent. It is still one of the most significant museums in New York, and on the planet , for art that chronicles the African-American experience, poignantly although not solely in urban environments. The work showcased here includes African-American works and twentieth century Afro-Caribbean pieces, as well as traditional African artifacts and art. The social facet of art is obviously on display in the permanent collection of the Studio Museum, as well as a consistent theme of looking for the African identity in an American context.

The Studio Museum has gathered a tremendous amount of recognition from the community of museums in New York City, as a whole due to its Artists in Residence program, which encourages several developing studio and gallery artists of African descent to reside on location while they create. This allows the artists to create and network while beginning successful careers in the art community. In addition, the museum serves as a heart for the Harlem arts community by hosting lectures, dialogues, panels, classes and performances on a good range of topics related to the African-American experience.



Found on 125th St, fifteen blocks north of Central Park in Harlem, the Studio Museum is very much an organic product of its environment. This Harlem museum is close to a considerable number of other famous locales, including the legendary Apollo Theater. Down the street, the NYC Public Libraryis 1 or 2 blocks east, and there are also a considerable number of parks, including the Morningstar Park and Central Park. The neighborhood itself is a ground-breaking landmark, full of plaques and notes of importance. Once a ghetto for liberated slaves and people fleeing the oppressive Jim Crow laws in the latter 1800s and early 1900s, Harlem became a cultural treasure in the 1920s and continues to play a crucial role in African-American culture.

The permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem is composed of over 1,600 works by prominent African-American artists, both in the Harlem community and throughout country. These artists, including Terry Adkins, Melvin Edwards,Robert Colescott, Norman Lewis, Hector Hyppolite, Lois Mailou Jones, Betye Saar, Nari Ward and others have had a result on the art world as well as within the greater African-American community. The basic theme of all the work within this museum is the Black identity; the museum is a very important and engaging location for everybody with an abiding interest in American history to go visit and take in. Particular themes include black liberation politics, dance, expressionism, roots and music, as well as the subjects of racism, sexism and the urban experience. These subjects could be arguable to some visitors, but they represent a punctual, significant debate throughout the broader American culture about the roles and perceptions of African-Americans in it, and it's one of many crucial museums in New York to find out about a selection of ideas, both old and new.




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