Outside of the Barbara Crawford Gallery on Thursday evening, January 15, bright lights cut through the winter darkness and spilled onto the red brick pathway of SCH’s Upper School campus. The source of this illumination was the newest gallery exhibition, Echoes of Our Future: 250 Years of Black Artistic Legacy in Philadelphia. The show is meant to reframe Philadelphia’s past 250 years through the lens of artistic Black excellence.
The exhibit, a passion project for SCH Director of Arts Meghan Monaghan, has been in the works for some time. “About a year and a half ago, I began to consider how the arts might mark the semiquincentennial,” said Dr. Monaghan. “Through the process of selecting the artists and works, I found the answer: these 27 artists would inspire our community while encouraging dialogue about the mark we leave for the next 250 years. I shared the exhibition vision and educational plan with Claudia Volpe.”
Curator of Echoes of Our Future, Claudia Volpe is the director of the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection (PFFC), an organization best known for its extensive African American art collection. Monaghan contacted Volpe to see if PFFC would loan these works to SCH’s Barbara Crawford Gallery.
“I was elated,” Monaghan said, “Not only did Claudia generously agree to loan the works to SCH, but she was so inspired by the project that she immediately volunteered to curate the exhibition herself.” On loan from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection, courtesy of Jim Petrucci, includes pieces by Henry Ossawa Tanner, an internationally acclaimed and groundbreaking African American painter.
Because many of the pieces center around the same larger ideas relevant to historic or current Black Philadelphian experiences, the gallery is arranged thematically. The portrait wall, “Picturing Community: Philadelphia through the Artists’ Lens”, explores the many ways artists have captured life in the city, from uplifting community members through formal photographs to abstracting subjects as a form of social critique. The music wall, dubbed “Music and Movement,” centers on Black musical expression, features works like Charles Searles’ acrylic painting depicting a vibrant African dance, and Reginald Gammon’s Lithograph on paper, Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds which honors the historically barrier-breaking blues group. The wall “A Changing Landscape” examines the natural built environment, highlighting Philadelphia’s complex relationship with hunger and its impact on the Black community. The section includes several mixed media pieces, like Marita Dingus’s “Anthony Tightly Wrapped,” a male figure constructed from plastic and wire.
Additionally, the exhibit touches upon trans-generational art-making, as some of the featured artists were family. For example, Ellen Tiberino’s mosaic piece entitled “Spring has Sprung with a Strange Sun” hangs across from her mother, Ellen Powell Tiberino’s, oil on canvas painting dubbed “Jerri.” This amplifies the idea of Philadelphia’s deep artistic lineage and the way in which art can and will empower those living through the next 250 years.
Those involved with the exhibit are excited to expose the broader SCH community to Echoes of Our Future. “These are exceptional works typically seen in major art galleries, and we’re incredibly fortunate to experience them right here on campus. By amplifying this opportunity, we can extend that experience beyond our school and welcome the larger community to encounter powerful works they might never otherwise explore.”
These pieces will only be in the BCG for a limited time. After March 12, the show will travel to the Hammonds House Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. And because “learning is best when it’s woven into the fabric” of someone’s day, all are welcome to take a walk through 250 years of Black Artistic excellence.
