On display at the Springfield Museum of Art is a new exhibit called BLACK LIFE as subject MATTER II. Beginning this Saturday, the museum is hosting community conversations about race inspired by the art in the exhibit.
Dayton artist Willis Bing Davis, the curator for the exhibit, chose the theme of Black life as subject matter because he knew it would give artists a wide latitude.
“We said, you can take any aspect of the Black experience, the joy, the sorrow, the happiness, the positive events, the negative events, and then address it in your own way, in your own style,” he said.
Davis curated an earlier iteration of the exhibit in 2016. This year’s BLACK LIFE as subject MATTER II was first displayed in February at the EbonNia Gallery in Dayton. The larger gallery space at the Springfield Museum of Art allows for about twice as many pieces to be included. The artists come from all over the Miami Valley, including Dayton, Springfield, Cincinnati and Oxford, as well as other parts of the state.
Davis and museum staff have collaborated in creating a series of monthly conversations moderated by artists and community leaders. Topics will include race as social construct, community building and bias. During the discussions, moderators will make use of an online resource, Talking About Race, from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“We realized that part of what we would want to do with BLACK LIFE as subject MATTER II would be to try to create places where people can think and talk about this national issue of race and what we're doing about it,” said museum educator Amy Korpieski. “As a museum, we know that artwork makes it a lot easier to talk about things that can sometimes be hard to talk about.”
Davis stated the exhibit helps to address the fact that museums have often been elite, white spaces. This is even the subject of some of the artwork in the exhibit, he said.
“Unfortunately, many of the museums historically have had that very narrow kind of perception of their purpose and function. And not only a narrow perception, but also operate almost out of what we would call a Eurocentric perspective,” he said. “For me, I've always operated from the standpoint that African American art and culture can be the basis of educational and social reform and can certainly add to the dialogue and discussion.”
Davis will moderate the first discussion, focused on bias, with Ryan Wynett of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. It will be held Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Springfield Museum of Art, as well as virtually on Zoom.
