I’VE KNOWN RIVERS: PRESENTING AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTS, CULTURE & HISTORY

Hosted by the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, Pittsburgh, PA

I’VE KNOWN RIVERS: PRESENTING AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTS, CULTURE & HISTORY

“I've known rivers, ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.” Langston Hughes, 1921

The Association of African American Museums invites you to attend the 2010 Annual Conference to be held August 4-7, 2010 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, hosted by the August Wilson Center for African American Culture.

Inspired by renowned poet Langston Hughes, I’ve Known Rivers: Presenting African American Arts, Culture & History explores efforts by metropolitan museums and cultural institutions to preserve and present the ancient through contemporary African American history and arts. Whether large or small, these institutions have been the catalyst for cultural and historical preservation throughout their regions.

As we move further into the twenty-first century, we are challenged by the question of whether metropolitan institutions, such as museums, cultural arts centers and archives can sustain and impact the growth and development of regional culture in this tough economic climate. I’ve Known Rivers: Presenting African American Arts, Culture & History has sessions planned which will address several questions that pertain to the strategies for survival in metropolitan centers. How have recent exhibitions managed to combine new and existing historical research with an ever-changing technology, while maintaining the integrity of the individual, the story and the craft? African American museums often bear the responsibility of balancing best museum practices with the need to preserve and interpret vital historical and cultural events.

Join us in Pittsburgh as your colleagues share innovative approaches to interpreting regional arts, history and culture, while highlighting the roles of metropolitan museums and cultural institutions on the cultural horizon.


Download the 2010AAAM Annual Conference Registration form by clicking here. Early Bird registration ends July 26!

The City of Hampton: Through the Lens of Reuben V. Burrell and James Van Der Zee

February 28, 2010 – November 27, 2010

The City of Hampton’s 400th Anniversary

The City of Hampton: Through the Lens of Reuben V. Burrell and James Van Der Zee
Opening Reception and Birthday Celebration for Mr. Burrell – Sunday, February 28, 2010

Reuben V. Burrell has documented through photographs a half of a century of Hampton University events – both big and small. Not only is Mr. Burrell the Griot (historian) of the University but his lens goes beyond the campus into the surrounding community. Coming to Hampton as a student in 1938 Burrell finished his course requirements in 1940, after which, World War II was pending. He received a B.S. degree in Industrial Arts from Hampton in 1947, and then enrolled at New York University where he earned his M.A. degree in Industrial Arts Education in 1949. Hired at Hampton in December 1949, Mr. Burrell began his career as the school photographer. For more than sixty years, he has provided an invaluable service to the university documenting its history as well as reprinting historic photographs. He has also documented landmarks, businesses, social and civic activities in the city of Hampton. His photographs include well known individuals in the city as well.

James Van Der Zee is recognized as the dean of African American photographers based on his large body of photographs taken in Harlem, New York during more than half of the 19th century. In 1906 Van Der Zee left his hometown of Lenox, MA here he met and married Kate L. Brown, a seamstress from Newport News, Virginia. The couple’s first child, Rachel, was born in 1907 and shortly afterward they traveled to Virginia. The Van Der Zee’s decided to remain in Tidewater, VA where Van Der Zee found employment as a waiter at the Hotel Chamberlin. The photographs will share images of two categories: the everyday activities of Slabtown residents and the academic community at Whittier Preparatory School.

Partial funding for this exhibition provided by the City of Hampton, 400th Anniversary Celebration Fund.

Photographs, Reuben V. Burrell, Collection of Hampton University Museum


Call or email Vanessa Thaxton-Ward for more information at 757.727.5508 or email vanessa.thaxton-ward@hamptonu.edu.

Museum and gallery events around Philly, PA

Museum and gallery events around Philly, PA

Art Museums & Institutions

African American Heritage Museum 661 Jackson Rd., Newtonville, NJ; 609-704-5495. www.aahmsnj.org. Tanya Murphy Dodd. Donations accepted. Leonard R. Wilkinson Jr.. Donations accepted. Tue.-Fri. 10 am-3 pm.

Barnes Foundation 300 N Latchs La., Merion Station; 610-667-0290. www.barnesfoundation.org. Docent-led Gallery Tours. Thru 8/31: Wed.-Sun. 9:30 am-5 pm. Sept.-June Fri.-Sun. 9:30 am-5 pm.

Brandywine River Museum Rte. 1 & Rte. 100, Chadds Ford; 610-388-2700. www.brandywinemuseum.org. Eye to Eye: Miniature Portraits From the Collection of Jamie Wyeth. Closes 7/11. John Haberle: American Master of Illusion. Closes 7/11. Tours of N.C. Wyeth House & Studio. Regular admission. Brandywine Heritage Galleries. Andrew Wyeth Gallery. N.C. Wyeth Gallery. Bayard & Mary Sharp Gallery. Striking Poses: Portraits From the Museum's Collections. Daily 9:30 am-4:30 pm.

Chemical Heritage Foundation 315 Chestnut St.; 215-925-2178. www.chemheritage.org. Marvels & Ciphers: A Look Inside the Flask. Free. Mon.-Fri. 10 am-4 pm.

Delaware Art Museum 2301 Kentmere Pkwy., Wilmington; 302-571-9590. www.delart.org. Howard Pyle & His Students. John Sloan. American Art, 19th Century to the Present. The Copeland Sculpture Park. The Pastoral Vision: British Prints, 1800-Present. Haiti: A Tribute in Art. Closes 7/11. Wed.-Sat. 10 am-4 pm, Sun. noon-4 pm.

Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts 200 S. Madison St., Wilmington; 302-656-6466. www.thedcca.org/. Spectrum: Contemporary Color Abstraction. Free. Joseph Barbaccia: Eight Currents. Free. Tannaz Farsi: Of News & Reclamation. Free. Lawrence Cromwell: Make it Bigger. Free. Linda Celestian & Kyle Ripp: Crash, Hush. Free. Closes 6/27. Tue., Thu.-Sat. 10 am-5 pm, Wed. & Sun. noon-5 pm.

The Fabric Workshop & Museum 1214 Arch St.; 215-568-1111. www.fabricworkshopandmuseum.org. Duo-Chrome/Duotone: Ink to Light. Mon.-Fri. 10 am-6 pm; Sat.-Sun. noon-4 pm.

Institute of Contemporary Art 118 S. 36th St.; 215-898-7108. www.icaphila.org. Queer Voice. Free. Wed.-Fri. noon-8 pm, Sat.-Sun. 11 am-5 pm.

James A. Michener Art Museum 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown; 215-340-9800. www.michenerartmuseum.org. Icons of Costume: Hollywood's Golden Era & Beyond. Michelle Berkowitz: Contemporary Costumes. The Lenfest Exhibition of Pennsylvania Impressionism. Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom. $10; $9 seniors; $7.50 students;$5 youth 6-18; free under 6. Tue.-Fri.10 am-4:30 pm, Sat. 10 am-5 pm, Sun. noon-5 pm.

La Salle University - Art Museum 1900 W. Olney Ave.; 215-951-1221. www.lasalle.edu/museum. An Exploration of Modernist Printmaking. Donations accepted. Mon.-Fri. 10 am-4 pm; Sun. 2 pm-4 pm.

Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts 1048 Washington St., Cape May; 609-884-5404. www.capemaymac.org/. .

Noyes Museum of Art - Hammonton 5 S. Second St., Hammonton; 609-561-8006. www.noyesmuseum.org/hammonton.html. The Art of Tattoo. Free. Tue.-Wed. 11 am-6 pm; Thu. 1 pm-9 pm; Fri.-Sat. 11 am-7 pm.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 118-128 N. Broad St.; 215-972-7600. www.pafa.org. Violet Oakley's Religious Art from the PAFA Collection. Closes 7/11. Este Es Mi Pais. Andy Warhol Polaroids and B&W Prints. The Vogel Collection. Selections From the Permanent Collection. Jasper Johns: Flag. Tue.-Sat. 10 am-5 pm; Sun. 11 am-5 pm.

Philadelphia Museum of Art 26th St. & Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.; 215-763-8100. www.philamuseum.org. Arts of Bengal: Wives, Mothers, Goddesses. Informed by Fire: Highlights of American Ceramics. Arts of Bengal: Town, Temple, Mosque. Interactions in Clay: Contemporary Explorations of the Collection. Notations/Forms of Contingency: New York & Turin, 1960s-1970s. Visions of Venice: Eighteenth-Century Prints From the Collection. Closes 7/18. Chinese Snuff Bottles. New York Dada. Railways of Hope & Fear: Selections from the Fernberger Print Collection. Closes 6/27. The Two Qalams: Islamic Arts of Pen & Brush. Isamu Noguchi at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Late Renoir. $24; $22 seniors; $20 children 13-18; $14 children 5-12; free 4 and under. Tue.-Thu., Sat.-Sun. 10 am-5 pm; Fri. 10 am-8:45 pm.

Philadelphia Museum of Art - Perelman Building Fairmount Ave.; 215-763-8100. www.philamuseum.org. Kantha: The Embroidered Quilts of Bengal. Inspiring Fashion: Gfits From Designers Honoring Tom Marotta. Plain Beauty: Korean White Porcelain/Photographs by Bohnchang Koo. Tue.-Sun. 10 am-5 pm.

Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art 615 N. Broad St.; 215-627-6747. www.rodephshalom.org. Permanent Collection. Free. Mon.-Thu. 10 am-4 pm; Fri. 10 am-2 pm.

Rodin Museum Franklin Parkway at 22d St.; 215-763-8100. www.rodinmuseum.org. Tue.-Sun. 10 am-5 pm.

Rosenbach Museum & Library 2008-2010 Delancey Pl.; 215-732-1600. www.rosenbach.org. Friend or Faux: Imitation & Invention From Innocent to Fraudulent. Closes 7/11. Tue., Fri. noon-5 pm; Wed.-Thu. noon-8 pm; Sat.-Sun. noon-6 pm; closed Mon. and holidays.

The Temple Judea Museum 8339 Old York Rd., Elkins Park; 215-887-2027. www.kenesethisrael.org/mus.htm. Mon.-Thu. 9 am-5 pm; Fri. 9 am-8 pm; Sun. 9:30 am-1 pm.

Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie Mansion 319 EState St., Trenton; 609-989-3632. www.ellarslie.org. Decorative Arts Collection. Free. Fine Arts Collection. Free. Historical Artifacts Collection. Free. History and Beauty: Valued Collections of the Trenton Museum. Free. Tue.-Sat. 11 am-3 pm; Sun. 1-4 pm.


Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/weekend/20100625_Museum_and_gallery_events.html#ixzz0rsH7eURl
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Michael Jackson prints and posters for sale.


Michael Jackson prints and posters for sale.

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David Driskell: The Importance of Documenting African American Art

David Driskell: The Importance of Documenting African American Art

Born in 1931 into a family of Georgia sharecroppers, David C. Driskell is today a renowned painter and collector of art, as well as one of the leading authorities on the subject of African American art and the black artist in American society. His paintings can be found in major museums and private collections worldwide. His contributions to scholarship in the history of art include many books and more than 40 catalogues for exhibitions he has curated. His essays on the subject of African American art have appeared in major publications throughout the world. In establishing the Driskell Center, the University of Maryland has proudly taken up Driskell’s challenge to “grow the field.”

Prof. Driskell studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and received his undergraduate degree in art at Howard University (1955) and a Masters in Fine Arts degree from Catholic University (1962). He joined the faculty of the Department of Art at the University of Maryland in 1977 and served as its Chair from 1978-1983. He has been a practicing artist since the 1950s and his works are in major museums throughout the world, including the National Gallery of Art, the High Museum of Art, and Yale University Art Gallery, to name a few.

nmIn 1976, Driskell curated the groundbreaking exhibit “Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750-1950” which laid the foundation for the field of African American Art History. Since 1977, Prof. Driskell has served as cultural advisor to Camille O. and William H. Cosby and as the curator of the Cosby Collection of Fine Arts. In 2000, in a White House Ceremony, Prof. Driskell received the National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton. In 2007, he was elected as a National Academician by the National Academy.



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Live Skin Care Product Demonstration This Saturday 6/26 1 to 3 PM Philly, PA


Live Skin Care Product Demonstration This Saturday 6/26 1 to 4 PM

The Skin is affected everyday by the personal care products we use. Since toxins can enter the body through the skin, the use of distilled water rather than city water, essential oils rather than fragrance oils and the best plant sourced oils rather than animal or petroleum oils with no preservatives offers the best choices for our products and a healthy lifestyle.

Our customers can take comfort in knowing that only the best ingredients from nature that bring no harm to animals, yet bring high quality to humans are included in our formulas.

Sometimes, skin problems begin with a product, not your skin. If we educate ourselves about natural alternatives, then we can purchase with more confidence from among the best solutions that Mother Earth offers.

At foreue we want our products to WORK! We strive to educate and offer the best natural products possible and we want to do our part to make the world a greener place.

Live Product Demonstrations Every Saturday 1 to 3 PM
6353 Greene Street (Germantown - Johnson & Greene Streets) Philly, PA 19144
Visit us online or call for more information about Foreue Natural Skin Care Products

www.foreue.com (267) 297-0188

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Smithsonian National Museum of African American Art and Culture

From NMAAHC — a celebration of the 75th anniversary of Harlem's famed Apollo Theater. Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment features photographs and artifacts tracing the rich history and cultural significance of the theater from its origins in 1914 as a whites-only burlesque hall to its starring role at the epicenter of African American entertainment. Open through August 29, 2010 at NMAAHC's gallery on the second floor of the National Museum of American History.

Apollo Events Calendar

An institution like no other, the Apollo Theater has spawned and nurtured the creative genius of some of America's most famous stars of dance, comedy, and the musical genres of swing, cool jazz, bebop, rock 'n' roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, Latin, and hip-hop. What better way to celebrate this milestone in American entertainment history than to present a series of discussions and performances filtered through the Apollo's lens?
Our upcoming programs are free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase and signing after author events. For more information, call 202.633.0070.

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Transitions: Contemporary South African Works on Paper


Transitions: Contemporary South African Works on Paper
Through August 8, 2010

This exhibition presents 13 works by eight artists and will explore how works of art can act as visual narratives and testimonials. In particular, these works will focus on the remarkable changes in the political and social landscapes in South Africa from 1974 during the height of Apartheid to 2002, two years before a decade of democracy was widely celebrated.

High Museum, Atlanta

Most Comprehensive Exhibition of Work by Atlanta Artist Radcliffe Bailey to Premiere at the High

ATLANTA, GA.- The High Museum of Art will organize and premiere the most comprehensive presentation of works by Atlanta-based artist Radcliffe Bailey beginning June 28, 2011. The exhibition “Radcliffe Bailey: Memory as Medicine” will highlight the artist’s experimentation with diverse media, showcasing sculptures, paintings, installations, works-on-paper, glass works and modified found objects. Comprising more than 25 works, “Memory as Medicine” will include new art created for the exhibition as well as works never before seen on public display. The exhibition will also juxtapose Bailey’s work with a display of classic African sculptures from the High’s permanent collection and selected loans of African art to show the influence of African aesthetic practices on the artist’s work.

“Radcliffe Bailey: Memory as Medicine,” organized by the High, will be on view in Atlanta from June 28 through September 11, 2011. The exhibition is scheduled to travel to the National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C. (presented in partnership with the National Museum of african american History and Culture); the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; the Museum for African Art, New York; and additional venues yet to be announced.

“In this exhibition, visitors will discover Radcliffe’s ability to a combine sculpture and painting, two- and three-dimensional forms and grand and intimate scales, creating works of art that are rich in texture, detail, color and, most importantly, meaning,” stated Michael E. Shapiro, the High’s Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr. Director. “The High is pleased to debut this exhibition in Atlanta, underscoring the Museum’s continued commitment to celebrating the talents and legacies of our local artists.”

The exhibition will present Bailey’s work divided into three main themes: “Water,” “Blues” and “Blood.” Works included in the “Water” group will feature the artist’s references to the Black Atlantic as a site of historical trauma as well as an artistic and spiritual journey. “Blues” will highlight works that illustrate the importance of music as a transcendent artform, including Bailey’s 1999 painting “Transbluesency,” which references a book of poems by Amiri Baraka and echoes the “Blues” theme. The third theme, “Blood,” will feature works focusing on the ideas of ancestry, race, memory, struggle and sacrifice. This section will further explore the artist’s engagement with African sculptures in tandem with his investigation of his own family’s DNA.

In 2006 Bailey learned his family’s ancestral links to the Mende people of Sierra Leone. This inspired the smallest, most intimate work he ever created―a miniature drawing done in ink and coffee on a piece of sheet music that features a Mende mask framed within a tiny red-velvet lined, 19th-century tintype case, as though a family portrait. This work will be on view in the exhibition alongside more recent works, including a new sculpture that has the smooth, curvilinear forms of Mende masks. It is made of wood and was repeatedly rubbed with finishing wax in a daily studio ritual. Minus the functional purpose of Mende masks, this work becomes a Brancusi-esque objet d’art, an inscrutable prop for a Neo-Dada-style, contemporary art world performance. Another 2010 work, “Clean-up,” is a painted wooden sculpture in the form of a 10-foot-high baseball bat. Bailey comments, “The reason why I made the bat so big was to beat down all the things that I confront. Baseball being one of my first passions, before art, the bat was like my paintbrush. In baseball, the fourth batter that comes up is the clean-up hitter.”

At the core of the exhibition will be seven sets of “medicine cabinet sculptures.” Their contents include a broad range of culturally charged objects, imagery and raw materials, from indigo powder to tobacco leaves to Georgia red earth. Just as Kongo minkisi sculptures from central Africa contain healing and protective medicine within mirrored packets, the socially cathartic contents of Bailey’s medicine cabinet sculptures are deeply recessed under reflective, tinted glass. These sculptures were conceived to link the too often disconnected histories of peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora and to emphasize collective experiences.

“Radcliffe Bailey’s art is consistently informed by a strong social and historical consciousness, and solidly grounded in family and community. The exhibition combines a rich, narrative content with a high-level of abstraction and poetic resonance to explore questions of history and memory,” said Carol Thompson, the High’s Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art and curator of the exhibition. “Bailey’s art traces the complex network of his ‘aesthetic DNA’ to create an antidote to cultural and historical amnesia.”

A number of works in the exhibition will highlight the artist’s penchant to animate his work with large-scale photographic reproductions of black-and-white prints given to him by his grandmother as well as historic photos he collects, in order to place african americans at the center of both American and world history. “I am interested in an Africanism that permeates our contemporary world but goes unnamed and is not talked about or fully addressed culturally,” stated Bailey. “I am interested in the impulse of that mysterious African force that propels black people wherever they are in the world.” Bailey strives to convey an African sensibility and spirituality that he says “exists in the tangible and the intangible.”

Opening and closing the exhibition will be several works that reference Èsù, the guardian of the crossroads and mediator of opposites who is honored throughout Yoruba regions of Africa and the African Diaspora. These early 21st-century works by Bailey resonate with the late 19th- or early 20th-century dance staff for Èsù from the Fred and Rita Richman Collection, also included in the exhibition. Caged African Finches will add a sound element to the exhibition.

Radcliffe Bailey
Radcliffe Bailey was born in 1968, in Bridgeton, New Jersey. He grew up in Atlanta, earning a bachelor’s degree in fine art from the Atlanta College of Art in 1991. From 2001 to 2006 Bailey taught at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia. He received a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2004) and was a visiting faculty member at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2006). In 2008, he created large-scale glass works as a participant in the Toledo Museum of Art’s Guest Artist Pavilion Project (GAPP). His work is represented in leading museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. In 1994 Bailey’s work was included in “The Hale Woodruff Memorial Exhibition” at The Studio Museum of Harlem. In 1996 Bailey gained acclaim for his large-scale mural “Saints,” a commission for Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. “Saints” remains on view, welcoming travelers entering the airport at International Terminal E.

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Posing Beauty in African American Art on View at Taubman Museum of Art

ROANOKE, VA.- The Taubman Museum of Art presents Posing Beauty in African American Culture as part of its summer exhibition schedule, along with works by James Grashow and Primitivo Suarez-Wolfe. Posing Beauty in African American Culture opened to the public on June 11, 2010 and will remain on view through August 22, 2010.

Posing Beauty in African American Culture explores the contested ways in which African American beauty has been represented in historical and contemporary contexts through photography. The 84 images in the exhibition challenge idealized forms of beauty in art by examining their portrayal and exploring a variety of attitudes about race, class, gender, popular culture, and politics as seen through the aesthetics of representation.

The first of three thematic sections, Constructing a Pose, considers the interplay between the historical and the contemporary and between self-representation and imposed representation, as well as the relationship between subject and photographer. The second thematic section, Body and Image, questions the ways in which our contemporary understanding of beauty has been constructed and framed through the body. The last section, Modeling Beauty and Beauty Contests, invites us to reflect upon the ambiguities of beauty, its impact on mass culture and individuals, and how the display of beauty affects the ways in which we see and interpret the world and ourselves.

With images dating from the 1890s to the present, Posing Beauty in African American Culture promises to transform the way we think about the history of African American visual culture. From posed studio portraits to dandies on parade to elegant debutantes, the exhibition constructs a bold narrative of the ever-changing idea of beauty, both female and male. Each photograph opens a window into an entire world of African American life. While celebrating ordinary people, the exhibition also is filled with photographs of the famous, from Josephine Baker to Lil’ Kim to James Brown and Serena Williams.

Artists in the exhibition include, among others, Carrie Mae Weems, Eve Arnold, Sheila Pree Bright, Renee Cox, Anthony Barboza, Bruce Davidson, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Builder Levy, and Garry Winogrand.

Posing Beauty in African American Culture is curated by Deborah Willis, chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at New York University – Tisch School of the Arts, and organized by Curatorial Assistance, Pasadena, California.

Designer Pledges $2 Million to Antipoverty Program

Designer Tommy Hilfiger is looking to bring the idea of ending global poverty into fashion.

On Wednesday, he will announce the formal launch of a five-year campaign to support Millennium Promise, a nonprofit founded by former private-equity financier Ray Chambers and economist Jeffrey Sachs in 2005 to help achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to halve extreme poverty by 2015.

Earlier this month, Mr. Hilfiger visited Ruhiira, a rural community of 55,000 people in Uganda, where Millennium Village has worked since 2006.

"I never expected poverty to be so extreme," Mr. Hilfiger says. "We saw firsthand how Millennium Village helps communities lift themselves out of poverty."

Millennium Village uses community-led, science-based approaches to fight poverty. It seeks to address a broad spectrum of needs—from teaching farmers how to improve crop yields to providing access to clean water.

The charity says agriculture production in Ruhiira has nearly doubled and malaria prevalence among all ages has decreased from 17% to less than 1% since 2006.

Now Mr. Hilfiger plans to encourage his employees and customers to get involved. While no formal program has been created, he says interested employees will get the opportunity to travel to Ruhiira to volunteer.

In 2011, Mr. Hilfiger plans to launch a cause-marketing program to generate customer awareness and support for the program.

"We want to extend ourselves and use power of our brand to support efforts to end extreme poverty in our lifetime," he says.

Mr. Hilfiger was born in Elmira, N.Y., where he opened his first store, the People's Place, when he was 18 years old. In 1984, he founded Tommy Hilfiger Corp., which he took public in 1992 and then sold in 2006. He remains the brand's principal designer.

During that time he created the Tommy Hilfiger Corporate Foundation, which began by focusing on education, health-related organizations and cultural youth programs in the U.S., supporting organizations such as the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation and the Race to Erase MS.

Through Millennium Promise, the foundation looks to "go global," according to Mr. Hilfiger.

"Over the last 15 years we've developed our brand into a global brand and we wanted our giving to follow suit," he says.

The $2 million pledged to Millennium Village project currently makes up the majority of the Tommy Hilfiger foundation's assets, which the company funds on a year-to-year basis.

Write to Shelly Banjo at shelly.banjo@wsj.com

Sale Shines Light on Unheralded Art Legacy - Swann Galleries

By LAUREN FEDOR






Romare Bearden's 'Jazz Musician at Piano' is expected to fetch $15,000-$25,000 at Swann Auction Galleries.

Lovers of art and music will unite this week at "Out of the Blue: Modern Art Jazz," a sale at Swann Auction Galleries on East 25th Street. Thursday afternoon's auction will feature 76 pieces by African-American artists who found inspiration in blues and jazz.

The sale, featuring works ranging from the figurative to the abstract, was planned to coincide with the CareFusion Jazz Festival, which rose this year from the ashes of George Wein's defunct New York Jazz Festival. The pieces in the sale will be open for public exhibition through Thursday. Though Swann is not officially affiliated with CareFusion, the auction house has collaborated with the festival to reach out to jazz enthusiasts, according to the director of African-American Fine Art at Swann, Nigel Freeman. For example, the CareFusion web site lists Swann as a New York jazz "hot spot" alongside such landmarks as Birdland and the Village Vanguard; similarly, Swann links to the CareFusion festival on its own site.

"Out of the Blue" will be Swann's seventh sale dedicated to art by African-Americans, a genre still relatively new to auction. Swann, which launched its African-American Fine Art department just three years ago, remains the only major auction house to regularly offer sales devoted to African-American art."They really are the first auction house to have the kind of focus they have," said Valerie Mercer, curator of the General Motors Center for African-American Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, about Swann. "For so long, black artists' work was not really appreciated or valued."

Mr. Freeman said he expects works by Romare Bearden to be among the auction's biggest sellers. "Back Porch Serenade" (1977), a collage composed of bright-colored papers with ink and colored pencil, could go for more than $60,000. Mr. Bearden (1911-1988) was best known for his semiabstract collages, which echo Cubist influences and are typically comprised of photographs and painted paper. Themes of jazz and the blues are common in his work. A Harlem-based artist who spent many days and nights with such jazz icons as Duke Ellington, Mr. Bearden even worked in a studio above the Apollo Theatre.

Robert O'Meally, a Columbia University English professor who examined Mr. Bearden's collages in his 2008 book, "Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey," said last week that the art world is "on the verge of recognizing a truly international artist."

In its short history, Swann's biggest winner has been Aaron Douglass, a Harlem Renaissance painter whose 1944 piece, "Building More Stately Mansions," sold in 2008 for $600,000 and is currently housed at the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design. Two years earlier, one of his works sold at auction for $6,600.

Since 2007, Swann has introduced more than 100 black artists to auction. Mr. Freeman said at least eight artists whose works have yet to be offered will be showcased in "Out of the Blue." They include Frank Stewart, the senior staff photographer for Jazz at Lincoln Center.

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New Art from LaShun Beal - Basket of Apples

New Art from LaShun Beal
Basket of Apples

Giclee on Paper or Canvas
Edition size= 50

Image size=18"w x 24"h

$150

LaShun Beal, born in 1962, is a native of Detroit. He now resides in the Houston, TX area. Although he's taken a few classess, he has no formal art training and really considers himself to be a self-taught artist. Beal was adventurous in his youth and wanted to see the world. Joining the United States Marines gave him a great opportunity to do so.

Beal's subject matter revolves around female subjects. His style depicts the many differences of African American women. Over the last few years he's developed his signature Universal Women character which has came to be associated with his name.

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Martha’s Vineyard African Am. Film Festival 8/11

The Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival
The film festival is August 11th - 14th

Stephanie's enthusiasm for event planning combined with Floyd's passion for filmmaking was the foundation for Run and Shoot Filmwork's Martha's Vineyard African-American Film Festival. Founded in 2001, the festival is one of the fastest growing film festivals in the country.

In 1999, Stephanie became the Marketing Director at Larry Flynt's CODE Magazine, a short lived lifestyle magazine for men of color. Her marketing impact was immediate as she created strategic alliances with top-notch celebrities and luxury brands. It was there that she realized that her calling was in event planning.

She eventually formed her own pr/event planning company (Crescendo) and worked extensively with such clients as Martell Cognac, Biz Markie, HBO, Showtime and Vangaurd Media.

Upon graduating from Howard University, Floyd immediately began working in the camera department of acclaimed director Spike Lee on the film "Mo'Better Blues".

After working on the 1st season of the award winning television drama "Law and Order", Floyd continued working with ASC Cinematographer/Director, Ernest Dickerson and Spike Lee on features including "Jungle Fever", "Malcolm X" and "Clocker".

Mr. Lee began to use Floyd as his cinematographer on special projects and music videos such as Gangstarr's/ "Loungin" and Sony Music's State of Art / "Beating Heart" music video which was photographed in Paris, France. Floyd is also credited on feature films Malcolm X and Get on the Bus, having shot additional footage.

Additionally, he photographed comedian Chris Rock's short film and directorial debut entitled "Too Nice" and a Anti-Violence PSA for HBO featuring Academy Award Nominee Queen Latifah.

Having worked on several feature films, award winning music videos and episodic television, Floyd segued into the television commercial arena.

After several years of study, Floyd has begun to flourish as a Commercial Director/Cinematographer. An avid sports fan, he photographed and directed several spots for the NBA Playoffs for NBC Sports.

Since establishing his creative outlet, RUN AND SHOOT FILMWORKS, INC., Floyd Rance has proceeded to produce outstanding visual work for several clients including, HBO, Martell Cognac, Reebok (Allen Iverson and NY Giants) and Footlocker.


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Our Love of John Scott thru 10/31 LA Museum

OUR LOVE OF JOHN T. SCOTT
March 25 - October 31, 2010

This personal look at the New Orleans artist's life, art work, journey and private reflections examines both John Scott's art practice and the people he influenced. Included are artist Bill Pajaud (who corresponded with Scott on napkins;) good friend and musical influence, Ellis Marsalis; artist Dewey Crumpler; artist Richard Wyatt, and other contemporaries who shared journeys together through notes, film clips, letters, intimate photographs and videos. The music he listened to in his studio resonates throughout the exhibition. This prolific artist worked in a wide variety of media and the exhibition includes lyrical sculptures, paintings and four by-six-foot woodcut blocks used to make large-scale prints.

This exhibition has been made possible through the generous support of Roosevelt and Paula Madison.


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Baltimore Events and Festivals 2010


Baltimore Events and Festivals 2010

Baltimore Farmers' Market & Bazaar
Fresh fruits, vegetables, breads, smoked meats, cheeses, arts & crafts, and more fill the state's largest producers-only market, Sundays, May 2-December 19, 7am-sell out (usually noon).

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Artists Marketplace 6/26/10 Baltimore

After 1968 - Artists & Civil Rights Legacy

MARCH 28 – AUGUST 11, 2010

As a complement to Road to Freedom, The Bronx Museum will also present AFTER 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy. This smaller exhibition includes works from seven African-American, emerging artists and collectives—all born on or after 1968—who have created new work examining the heritage of the Civil Rights Movement and its affect on the lives of this new generation. Using the movement as inspiration, context or critique, these artists address their own personal understanding of race, identity, American violence, and political activism providing new perspectives on and discourse about this critical time in history.

Avisca Art Show 7/9-7/31 Atlanta

Samella Lewis and Jimi Claybrooks Video

Dr. Samella Lewis, Visual Artist and Jimi Claybrooks

This was a video conference at the Philadelphia International Art Expo. October Gallery. In 2000 October Gallery produced a video conference with artists Dr. John Biggers and Dr. Samella Lewis. This video conference was part of the annual Philadelphia International Art Expo.

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Is Black Art Still Relevant? Video

Is Black Art Still Relevant?

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Informal discussion on, Is Black Art Still Relevant in 2010.
African American Art.
Participants include: Gaille Hunter, John Williams, Elizabeth Nelson McCorkle, Evelyn Redcross, Aria Jones, Stan Burwell, Thaddeus Govan, Jr., Martina Johnson-Allen and Tanya Murphy.

Filmed at October Gallery Germantown, PA. May 9, 2010


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Ghana High Fashion Madonna by Cal Massey


Ghana High Fashion Madonna by Cal Massey
Original on Canvas
30 x 48
Retail Price: $27,000

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About the Artist:
MOORESTOWN-Cal Massey said that the wonderful images that appear on his canvases come to him during his daily meditations. He jots them on notecards and stores them in a filing cabinet that stands near the easel in his studio. "Everything in my work is spiritual," the 80-year-old artist said. Entering the artist's home/gallery studio on Dawson Street is almost a spiritual experience in itself. Messiah, a rendition of a black Christ as one with the earth, standing between the galaxies and the oceans, is the first painting a visitor notices. Near it hangs "Angel Heart", which Massey considers one of his most popular works, inspired in part by the lack of black angels in traditional artwork. The angel's hair, styled in a full Afro, is a tribute to the natural beauty of the black woman, Massey said. For years, Massey's work has represented the black community in the art world. Now the artist, whose work already hangs on the walls of Congress members and rock stars, will see his work hang from the necks of Olympians. Massey was one of 13 artists from around the world chosen to design a commemorative medal for the 1996 ,Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

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Untitled Study by Lois M. Jones


Untitled Study by Lois M. Jones

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Lois Mailou Jones (November 3, 1905 – June 9, 1998) was a prize winning artist who lived into her nineties and who painted and influenced others during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond during her long teaching career. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts and is buried on her beloved Martha's Vineyard in the Oak Bluffs Cemetery.

Dr. Jones began painting as a child and had shows of her work when she was in high school. "Every summer of my childhood, my mother took me and my brother to Martha’s Vineyard island. I began painting in watercolor which even today is my pet medium."

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The Artwork of Purvis Young

Miami Artist Purvis Young Dead at 67


We have just learned from one of Purvis Young’s lifelong friends that Purvis passed away this morning in Miami.

Purvis had just turned 67 on February 4th of this year.
Those of us who had the privilege of being his friend know that a “ great soul “ has been taken from us. Purvis Young was a true and consummate artist who lived entirely for his art. He leaves behind a colossal body of work which has already given pleasure to countless people who have seen it in the over sixty museums in in which his vibrant expressionistic paintings have been shown.
Purvis Young will live on through his paintings and in the memory of his friends and myriad collectors.

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Happiness Summit Oct. 9th –10th San Fran.

The First Annual Global Happiness Summit will take place October 9th –10th, 2010 aboard the USS-Hornet, an American treasure that participated in the Apollo 11 space mission. The Global Happiness Summit will be the most important and dynamic summit in the history of the happiness movement, bringing together hundreds of industry, government and visionary leaders, research scientists and accomplished students from all over the world. This unprecedented event will take place during “Fleet Week”, providing the best seat in the house! Step into history and follow in Neil Armstrong’s footsteps, ride the flight simulator or just relax and soak in the breathtaking views of the San Francisco bay.

The USS-Hornet is just 20 minutes from San Francisco at 707 W. Hornet Ave Pier 3, Alameda California. We invite you to be part of this wonderful event in support of our theme: "Raising the Level of Happiness in the World". It will be Educational, Enlighten, Entertaining and Empowering.


The I Am Happy Project is a non-profit charitable organization that began early 2009 by Edwin Edebiri. During a time when disasters, recession and depression are increasing, he wanted to encourage people to shift focus on the things that really matter, such as faith, family and friends.

National Black Arts Fest. July 14-18 Atlanta

The NBAF (National Black Arts Festival) is one of the premier national and international celebrations of the art, music and culture of people of African descent. The mission of the NBAF is to engage, cultivate and educate diverse audiences about the arts and culture of the African Diaspora and provide opportunities for artistic and creative expression.

NBAF

Essence Music Fest. July 2-4, New Orleans

Essence Music Festival July 2-4, New Orleans, LA

All the news you need to know about this year's ESSENCE Music Festival happening on the 4th of July weekend in New Orleans. From headliners-Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, and Alicia Keys--to the line-up of free Empowerment Seminars, hotel and travel info, and ticket packages, this is your one-stop destination for your EMF

Black Panthers: Films - July 10, Chicago

The following films are scheduled to be shown:
  • Back Panther Party Origins (120 minutes)
  • The Murder of Fred Hampton (88 minutes)
  • Fred Hampton in His Own Words (30 minutes )
  • Legacy of Torture – The San Francisco 8 (28 minutes)
  • American Gangster Hoover & Cointellpro (42 minutes)
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Time: 11:00am – 5:00pm
Cost:

Free

Artscape Baltimore, MD July 2010

Artscape Mount Royal Cultural Corridor www.artscape.org

The region's celebration of the arts features incredible headline entertainment; a first-class schedule of dance, theater, opera, street performers and family fun; an amazing array of visual arts from more than 200 artisans, craftspeople and cultural exhibitors; and a delightful menu of culinary arts.

African Am. Heritage Fest. B'more - July

July 2010
African American Heritage Festival
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
www.aahf.net

The African American Heritage Festival is an annual family celebration of the history, culture, education, heritage and arts that embraces and promotes the rich traditions and zestful spirit of the city of Baltimore. Participate in a diverse offering of arts and entertainment including national and local talent; educational and historical exhibits; interactive children's area; and crafts from more than 100 vendors, community organizations and merchants.

African American Renaissance Grand Tour

African American Renaissance Grand Tour Baltimore City; 410-727-0755 or 410-728-3837

Costumed re-enactors perform at various historical African American sites throughout Baltimore City allowing participants to experience Baltimore's rich African American history at its best. The Grand Tour is available for groups and individuals and will be held the last Friday of the month.