Join the 2017-2018 Schomburg Center Teen Curators in celebration as we present our third annual Teen Curators Exhibition, Syncretic Vibrations: Exploring the Mosaic of Blackness through the Melville Herskovits Collection. This exhibitengages in a call and response dialogue with the work of anthropologist, Melville J. Herskovits, who was an Americananthropologistwho helped establish African and African-American studies in American academia. Herskovits is known for exploring the cultural continuity from African cultures as expressed in African-American communities.
Through research, discussion, and creative investigation, the
Schomburg's Teen Curators have reflected on the odyssey of blackness
while reflecting upon the question and answers to "who controls how a
people are studied, represented and therefore remembered?" The
exhibition features an array of student produced mixed-media works
poignantly juxtaposed with archival materials from the Schomburg
Center's collections.
Photo: Sarramakan
Wooden Comb, Suriname. Melville Herskovits collection, Schomburg
Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.
The
Teen Curators Program is an after-school art history enrichment program
admitting 30 high school students each year. This art historical
knowledge is acquired through curatorial projects and aesthetic
engagements with collections at the Schomburg as well as other museums
and cultural institutions. Through these processes students are exposed
to behind-the-scenes work of museums and libraries (eg. collecting,
preserving, archiving, and interpreting) and the pathways to
professional careers in field. Teen Curators gain knowledge about black
art history in the United States and across the world through the study
of real works of art at the Schomburg Center and at other art spaces
across the City. Students create exhibitions by researching and writing
about art and artists. Over the course of the program students learn
about arts careers and gather behind-the-scenes experiences in museums
and libraries.
This
tuition-free program uses arts education to increase the historical and
cultural literacy of teenagers and promote their
artistic, intellectual, and professional engagement. Teen Curators meet
at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, engage with its
archives and travel to local museums and galleries to advance their art
studies.
The Schomburg Teen Curators Program is generously funded by The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation.
If
you have any questions about the program, please contact the Education
Coordinator, Zenzele Johnson at ZenzeleJohnson@nypl.org
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