New Space, Exhibition Showcase Art Legacy

Established at the University of Maryland in 2001, the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora provides an intellectual home for artists, museum professionals, art administrators and scholars of color, broadening the field. The center is committed to preserve, document and present African American art as well as to replenish and expand the field.

EXPANSIVE IN SCOPE, the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland opens its doors in a new space next month prepared to fulfill its mission of education and exploration.

The center officially opened the week of Oct. 15 with Evolution: Five Decades of Printmaking by David C. Driskell. Mirroring the theme of evolution, the center now occupies an area transformed from an indoor pool in the Cole Student Activities Building into a spacious, brightly lit space filled with art. Curator-in-residence Adrienne L. Childs has assembled 75 prints and 10 to 15 additional works on paper that will provide insight into the distinguished university professor of art emeritus’ artistic process and development over five decades. An artist, art historian, collector and curator, Driskell was recently named a member of the nearly 200-year-old National Academy, an honorary association of American artists.

He has served as curator for the Cosby Collection of Fine Arts since 1977. In this exhibit, Childs aptly illustrates Driskell’s willingness to experiment and turn the everyday into art. The seat of a three-legged stool inspired his 1974 “Round Still Life,” a colorful, abstract work. Driskell’s media include woodcuts, etchings, screenprints, lithography and more. Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art at the National Gallery of Art, wrote in her essay for the exhibition’s catalog, “Moreover, embedded in his basic approach to life is the challenge to make something from something else, the dictum to waste not, want not, the desire to make all things beautiful.”

Home to an archive housing thousands of pieces of his work and historical documents, the new 10,000-square-foot David C. Driskell Center also includes administrative offices; exhibition, storage and study space. It is open for research, and according to Executive Director Robert E. Steele, the center also allows the staff to nurture the next-generation arts community, whether they become artists, art administrators, exhibition designers or writers.

“One of our primary thrusts is to replenish existing people of color in the field,” he says, “and expand career opportunities.”

Steele and Dorit Yaron, deputy director, add that the center also exists to ensure that the contributions of African American artists are recognized. “African American art is an important component in the history of American art,” says Yaron. Steele compares such artistic contributions to those made by jazz and blues musicians to the mosaic of American music.

Evolution is scheduled to start its national tour in the spring of 2008. —DB/MAB

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