Morehouse College Art Initiative
Resistance Art
Resistance Art - Room 2
Gender
Gender - Room 2
Urbanization
Urbanization - Room 2
Global Expressionism
Global Expressionism - Room 2
Sculptures
Shared Understanding
Project SummaryThe goal of the African American/ South African Shared Understanding Project is to identify means by which Contemporary Art from the African Diaspora can be used to stimulate and enhance interest in the Visual Arts and Humanities. It includes workshops, art exhibitions and an Advisory Board mechanism to support the implementation of this goal on a continuing basis. The assessment of contemporary South African art and its' parallel to African American art and the socio-political environment is used to understand and catalyze shared cultural understanding as a basis for stimulating interest in the arts. The significance of this approach is based on the observation that learning can be greatly influenced where the recipient share a relation and/or association with the information presented (shared understanding). Humanities, museum and art gallery personnel also support observations that the recipients often appear to be more stimulated when they perceive associations or relations with the subject matter presented. This is often amplified when the artist and /or the subject matter share relativity similar time periods with the recipient (Contemporary).
Implementation of the "Project" was a great success! This is based on the quantitative feedback from the participants and the confirmation and embellishment of the goals and outcomes as defined by the participants in response to the project's proposal. Specifically the detail goals and the outcomes for both workshops are as follows:
Goal: Develop an Advisory Board and identify infrastructure and programs for presenting contemporary art from the African Diaspora.
Outcome(s): An advisory board was created to ensure the ongoing success of the project; the approach currently used in the workshops and exhibitions to stimulate interest in the arts was confirmed; a museum was identified as a resource to realize the project's objectives. Finally an "International Institute" was recommended as a very important instrument (next step) for accomplishing the project's objective.
Goal: Develop collaboration for supporting these programs.
Outcome(s): Strong collaborations were formed in the first workshop between the AUC Institutions, museums and "Project" (Morehouse College) personnel to focus on means by which contemporary art can be brought to students and the public. The AUC Institutions will work together to ensure focus on the "Contemporary Diaspora" concept in the curriculum (see outcomes below). Organizations from the second workshop, such as African Americans for the Arts, agreed to promote the "Project's" objectives as a part of their objectives; both the National Conferences of Artists and the National Black Arts Festival organization have agreed to collaborate with Morehouse College in its initiative to utilize contemporary art from the African Diaspora as a means for stimulating interest in the arts and humanities; Morehouse College in collaboration with the NBAF will present an exhibition, in July 2003, which further addresses the project's objectives.
Goal: Develop video and other materials for stimulating interest in the Arts and Humanities
Outcome(s): A draft video has been developed which will be reviewed by selected workshop personnel (HBCU, museums, organizations, etc) for development of a final product for distribution, both for distribution as a video and CD Rom product as well as for placement on a website, which has been developed for this project.
Goal: Make grant product available through publications and Internet sources.
Outcome(s): As indicted above (collaborators, advisory board, video, CD Rom and website).
Goal: Incorporate these materials into curricula for the arts and humanities.
Outcome(s): Morris Brown College has agreed to offer an African Diaspora module in a survey course on Arts; Spelman College agreed to continue emphasis on the subject in their existing curriculum; all AUC institutions agreed to encourage cross-registrations of their students for courses addressing the African Diaspora;
Goal: Identify other venues for presenting the art workshops objectives
Outcome(s): The collaborative efforts with the other AUC and selected workshop organizations, as indicated above, will use venues recommended by the workshops to support the workshops objectives; for example, the establishment of workshops and panel discussions on the subject matter between Africans and African Americans artists/ scholars; combined museum exhibitions between University and city museums; exhibitions at non-traditional places (medical conferences, high schools, inner-community); development of an African American survey book on contributions to the visual arts; convene an "International Institute" on contempary art from the African Diaspora.
One of the key issues addressed during the workshop was a need for a facility/programs which could serve as a resource base for using contemporary art as an instrument to increase interest in the arts and humanities. It was clear at the workshop that no such instrument currently exists at HBCUs (see original proposal in appendices) Consequently, Morehouse College is committed to investing the necessary resources to assess the requirement for developing a facility (museum), which will house contemporary art and subsequent programming (such as distance-learning capabilities to make the museum and related programs a virtual classroom/learning laboratory, which could also be accessed by the Internet). This capability would serve the national and international community.
A planning committee for this project has been formed. External program management organizations are being evaluated for their ability to define the requirements for the facility as well as the initial design concept. This is a major project of the College and the "Contemporary Art Initiative Shared Understanding Project". Previously, no historically black institution has focused on contemporary art. Also, Morehouse has not pursued major programming in the arts in relations to the humanities. The College feels the new focus will enable the College to raise the funding required for the development of this facility (museum)/programs because of the very important services which this project will provide!