Sunday, September 29, 2013

Museums in New York City: The Studio Museum Harlem

By Tia Dryer


For some considerable time, the Studio Museum in Harlem was the sole important cultural institution for art by American artists of African descent. It still is one of the most important museums in NY, and in the world , for art that chronicles the African-American experience, particularly but not exclusively in urban environments. The work displayed here includes African-American works and twentieth century Afro-Caribbean pieces, as well as conventional African art and artifacts. The social facet of art is obviously on show in the permanent collection of the Studio Museum, as well as a consistent theme of searching for the African identity in an American context.

The Studio Museum has made a incredible amount of recognition from the community of museums in New York City, very much due to its Artists in Residence program, which permits several up and coming studio and gallery artists of African descent to live 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 is a center for the Harlem arts community by hosting dialogues, lectures, panels, classes and performances on a wide range of current affairs related to the African-American experience.



Located on 125th St, 15 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 road, the New York Public Libraryis one or two blocks east, and there are also a bunch of parks, including the Morningstar Park and Central Park. The neighborhood itself is a historic landmark, full of plaques and notes of significance. Once a ghetto for released slaves and persons fleeing the domineering Jim Crow laws in the later 1800s and early 1900s, Harlem changed into 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 famous 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 an effect on the art world as well as within the larger African-American community. The general theme of all the work within this museum is the Black identity; the museum is a vital and fascinating location for everybody with an interest in American history to go to 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 an expedient, crucial discourse in the larger American culture about the perceptions and roles of African-Americans in it, and it happens to be one of many crucial museums in New York to learn about a variety of ideas, new and old.




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