EXHIBIT: Black Dimensions in Art Presents: Illustration and the Word :: April 2019 :: Albany
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Black Dimensions in Art presents:
Illustration and the Word
Featuring artists:
Marcus K. Anderson | Cozbi A. Cabrera | Gregory Christie | James E. Ransome | Grey Williamson | Onjena Yo | Elizabeth Zunon
Curated by Jacqueline Lake-Sample
Exhibit: April 1, 2019 - April 28, 2019
Reception: Friday, April 5, 2019, 6 PM - 8 PM
Storytelling Event: Saturday, April 6, 2019, 10 AM - 11 AM
Albany Barn
56 2nd St, Albany, NY 12210
About Black Dimensions in Art
The seed for Black Dimensions in Art, Inc. (BDA) was planted in 1972 in Black Arts, Inc. (BAI), a grassroots organization in Albany, New York. BAI, directed by noted Albany author Mars Hill, produced the Black Arts Festival to celebrate and showcase visual and performing arts. BAI’s Visual Arts Committee, chaired by renowned Schenectady artist Margaret Cunningham, provided the context from which BDA eventually emerged.
Encouraged by BAI founding members Cunningham and John Carter, the committee formed Black Dimensions in Art, and in 1975, the group was incorporated as a volunteer non-profit organization. BDA ‘s mission: to educate the public about the unique contributions of artists of the African Diaspora within the American art scene through exhibitions, publications, television, and other media; to provide exposure and sales opportunities for artists of African descent; and to encourage youth of African descent in the practice, application, and appreciation of the arts. The first major exhibition organized by BDA was “Black Artists in Historical Perspective I” at the Albany Institute of History and Art in celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial.
Forty years later, BDA continues in the tradition of its founding members with a board composed of artists and art enthusiasts from the Capital Region. Today, BDA not only reaches the Capital Region, but is represented nationally and internationally. BDA continues to mount major exhibitions annually. Exhibitions have been at such venues as the formerly named Schenectady Museum, Albany International Airport, Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza, New York State Museum, Capital Repertory Theatre, Wellington Herbs and Spices, Arts Center of the Capital Region and the African American Cultural Center of the Capital Region, Inc. Exhibitions are researched and organized by BDA’s Board of Directors. BDA also supports an important aspect of its mission through its Emerging Artists and Summer Youth Arts programs. In these programs youth work together with professional artists/mentors in the development of their artistic skills.
About Albany Barn
Albany Barn is dedicated to providing a sustainable creative arts incubator and community arts center in Arbor Hill – a place for artists to live, work and inspire.
Albany Barn evolved from Rock2Rebuild™, a grassroots production group established to create events benefiting important causes while creating opportunities for local creative talent. Rock2Rebuild staged several major multimedia events and founded an ongoing acoustic concert series in the Children’s Hospital at Albany Medical Center featuring capital region artists. Rock2Rebuild’s first undertaking to raise funds for children and families devastated by the 2004 South Asian tsunami disaster attracted 2,000 people, raised over $26,000, and was voted one of the year’s three “Best Concerts” in the Albany Times Union “2005 Readers Poll,” along with shows by top international touring acts Green Day and the Dave Matthews Band.
Albany Barn has continued Rock2Rebuild’s work as part of its broader mission, pioneering local music showcases at “Art on Lark” and “Lark Fest,” two of the region’s largest cultural events, and resurrecting the “Summer In The City Youth Talent Exhibition” to present works by young people from Arbor Hill and other downtown neighborhoods.
