CLARKSVILLE, TN − The Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, in collaboration with Crafting Blackness Initiative, proudly presents Embracing Blackness: Diasporic Unions. The exhibition celebrates work by artists of African descent based in Tennessee whose diverse multicultural heritages influence and visualize Black identities and experiences.
Co-curated by Crafting Blackness Initiative co-director Karlota Contreras-Koterbay and Tennessee Craft’s board director Carlton Wilkinson, the curatorial locus revolves around ‘Blackness as Inclusion,’ assertions of the vital reality of Black gazes’ capacity to embrace cultures. The featured artists include a stellar line-up headed by Clarksville very own master craft artist Ludie Amos, Alice Aida Ayers, Seyi Babalola, Olasubomi Aka-Bashorun, Marteja Bailey, Omari Booker, Brittney Boyd Bullock, LeXander Bryant, Jane Buis, Landry Butler, Bill Capshaw, Gail Clemons, Tina Curry, Samuel Dunson, Kimberly Dummons, Amanda Ewing, Jason Flack, Cynthia Gadsden, Barbara Hodges, Leroy Hodges, Alexis Jones, Henry L. Jones, Ted Jones, Wilson Lee Jr., Dashawn Lewis, Rod McGaha, Hattie Marshall-Duncan, Aundra McCoy, Armon Means, Lester Merriweather, LaKesha Moore, Andrew Morrison, Elisheba Mrozik, Michael Mucker, Althea Murphy-Price, Calvin Nicely, Xander Payne, Christine Roth, Deneen Coleman Ruff, Ashley Seay, Thandiwe Shiphrah, Lorenzo Swinton, Ja Woke Tatu, Betty Turner, Maya Turner, Gary L. White, Ramona Wiggins, Carlton Wilkinson, Donna Woodley, Kevin Wurm with works by influential historical artists William Edmondson, Bessie Harvey, Sammie Nicely, Greg Ridley, and memorial to Alicia Henry.
As part of multi community engagement activities, Embracing Blackness Panel and performance by Giovanni Rodriguez and Friends are scheduled on July 10, First Thursday during the Clarksville Art Walk from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center galleries. The Embracing Blackness panelists are Samuel Dunson, Christine Roth, Rod McGaha, Gary White and Hattie Marshall Duncan, facilitated by co-curators Wilkinson and Contreras-Koterbay. The panel will be at 5 to 6 p.m. at the Customs House Museum galleries followed by the dance performance from 6 to 7 p.m. at the courtyard.
The exhibition is on view until July 27, and is part of the Crafting Blackness Initiative, a research-based traveling exhibition and publication project on the 100 years history of Black Craft artists of Tennessee. Supported by the Tennessee Craft, Tennessee Arts Commission, South Arts, East Tennessee Foundation, Bravissima! Women Sponsoring the Arts and various partners through ETSU Slocumb Galleries. Historical works on loan courtesy of institutional partners Knoxville Museum of Art, Trahern Family Collection of Austin Peay State University, Allison and Martha Alfonso and the Carl Van Vechten Gallery of Fisk University.
For more information about the Crafting Blackness Initiative, please visit https://tennesseecraft.org/crafting-blackness/ or email co-director Karlota Contreras-Koterbay at contrera@etsu.edu. The Customs House Museum and Cultural Center is located at 200 S 2nd St.