by Cieslafdn | Jan 17, 2015 | Social Justice Work
Art collector and community activist Peggy Cooper Cafritz has been described as “resilient and so voracious.” Five years ago, a fire destroyed her home, as well as her collection of contemporary African and African-American art. The collection contained works from the likes of Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Hank Willis Thomas, and Jacob Lawrence, who received a Rosenwald grant in 1940. The collection had over 300 works and was worth millions of dollars. Instead of dwelling on her tremendous loss, Peggy decided to continue collecting art that she loved. Her new condominium is saturated with artwork, so much so that it can be hard to find the furniture.
To find out more about Peggy Cooper Cafritz, click here.
by Cieslafdn | Jan 16, 2015 | Social Justice Work
Ironically on the same day of what would have be Dr. Martin Luther King’s 86th Birthday, Selma is ignored in most categories for Oscar nominations, only getting nominated in the Best Song and Best Picture categories. David Oyelowo is not recognized for his exceptional portrayal of Dr. King and all were surprised when Ava DuVernay did not become the first black woman to be nominated in the Best Director category.
David Oyelowo, photographed on the set of ‘Selma’
Photo Source: www.independent.co.uk
The 87-year old awards show is historically known for having very little diversity amongst the list of nominees as a result of who is allowed to vote. The 6,000 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are over 90 percent white and over 70 percent male. Most serve life terms, leaving little hope for a multicultural list of nominees in the future.
Despite AMPA votes, this film still stands as the most politically influential of the year, addressing concerns of whether the fight for racial equality is over or if there’s still much more work to be done. Debuting at a very necessary time with the current protests against police brutality, Oyelowo represents Dr. King very well and served as an inspiration for civil rights activists new and old.
For a list of all of the 2015 Oscar nominations go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/01/15/2015-oscar-nominations-complete-coverage/
Erica Marshall, Winter Intern
by Cieslafdn | Jan 15, 2015 | Rosenwald Fund
On a National Geographic-Liblad cruise, Stephanie Deutsch got the chance to see Antarctica, where there is a mountain named after Julius Rosenwald. The mountain “forms a distinctive landmark between the heads of the Baldwin and Gallup glaciers in the Queen Maud mountains.” It was discovered by Rear Admiral Richard Byrd in 1929, who named it after Rosenwald. It is an example of how Rosenwald’s influence can be found all over, or, as Aviva Kempner likes to say, “all roads lead to Rosenwald.”
Click
here to read more about Mount Rosenwald on Stephanie’s blog.
by Cieslafdn | Jan 15, 2015 | Rosenwald Fund
For the first time since 1994, all sixty panels from Jacob Lawrence’s Migration of the Negro (commonly known as the Migration Series) will be reunited and displayed in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) at the Downtown Gallery in New York City. In an exhibition entitled “One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North,” the display will be open to the public from April until September of 2015. In 2016, the panels will go to the Phillips Collection here in Washington, DC to be shown.
These narrative paintings were created during the early 1940s, a time when many African Americans were migrating from the Jim Crow South to the North. Only 23 years old when creating this work of art, Lawrence used resources provided from the Rosenwald Fund and to travel to the South and witness firsthand the segregation and blatant racism in rural communities to serve as his inspiration for the series. Additionally, he addresses the struggles and triumphs of the migration using his personal experiences in the North as a child and young adult.
Although Julius Rosenwald expressed very little interest in art, his wife Adele Rosenwald Levy collected art and was drawn to Lawrence’s work and more than willing to make a contribution. She specifically loved panel 46, the reason why the even-number panels are in MoMA and the odd-number panels are located here in the Phillips Collection. This acquisition by Adele and the Rosenwald fund helped Lawrence to become the major figure in American art that he is still considered to be today.
For more info about the Migration Series, Jacob Lawrence and how to see the panel displays click below to view this article by the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/arts/design/jacob-lawrences-great-migration-series-returns-to-moma.html
Erica Marshall, Winter Intern
by Cieslafdn | Jan 7, 2015 | Rosenwald Grant Recipients
Sixty years ago, on January 7th 1955, famed contralto Marian Anderson made history as the first African American to perform at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Anderson’s career was launched in the early 1930s when she travelled to Europe on two Rosenwald grants (you can read about her trip to Europe on a previous blog). Her success in Europe followed her back to America, where Anderson became a national icon. She is perhaps best remembered for her historic 1939 concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
You can read more about Marian Anderson’s 1955 Met Performance
here.
Marian Anderson, photographed by Gordon Parks in 1943
Photo source: Farm Security Administration via Library of Congress
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