Curatorial Notes
Part 1: Acts of Seated Experience is an exhibition that derived from artwork researched and found in the New York Public Library Public Domain Collection. As the art curator for The Arts At Page Library, these images spoke volumes being that they were a part of the Works Progress (WPA) Administration, the visual arts arm of the Federal Art Project. Many artists during the Great Depression were offered positions as art educators, writers, musicians, actors and artists to support themselves from 1935 until 1943. Each artist chosen for this exhibition created art about African American life during this period in history.
The research process, as the curator it was surprising to discover that many of the images featured in part one of this exhibition, were by American artists versus African American artists. Only one African American artist is featured in this first exhibition, Charles Alston a painter, illustrator, muralist, and teacher. Though many artists were hired to work for the Federal Art Project, a lot of them did not receive notoriety. This exhibition, created to provide a platform for art patrons to learn more about WPA artists and the roles that they played as observers of African American culture and how they viewed social and economic issues that were lingering during the Great Depression as artists and critical thinkers.
The artistic approaches by the majority of artists featured in this exhibition are easel paintings, prints, drawings, and photography – still images, black and white or in color. During the Federal Art Project, WPA favored figurative work versus abstract art. Art patrons will come to find that many of the artworks are representational of African American life in Harlem, New York.
This body of work is a digital exhibition that is available online. The platform used to house the online exhibition is courtesy of Omeka.net, a free, flexible, and open source web-publishing platform for the display of library, museum, archives, and scholarly collections and exhibitions. There are 10 images featured and are arranged in three parts. The culmination of the exhibit (Summer 2017) will consist of all of the images from the first two exhibitions and the last set of works chosen.
It brings me pleasure as an art librarian to share this exhibition with you, Part 1: Acts of Seated Experience. Feel free to send comments our way regarding your experience viewing the exhibition here: theartsatpagelibrary@gmail.com.
kYmberly Keeton, M.L.S.
Arts Library Coordinator, The Arts At Page Library