After Acts of Art: Three Generations of Black-Owned Galleries in NYC
Friday, March 21

2-5pm: Roundtable Discussion
Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College
47-49 E 65th St, New York (btwn Madison and Park)

5-7pm: Closing Reception and Book Launch
Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery
132 East 68th St, New York (btwn Lexington and Park)

Our newly released exhibition catalogue will be available for purchase at the event.

To mark the release of Acts of Art in Greenwich Village (co-published by Hunter College Art Galleries and Hirmer Publishers), please join us for a dynamic and thought-provoking conversation highlighting some of New York's thriving Black-owned galleries. Bringing together gallerists who first opened their pioneering spaces in the 1970s and 1980s with representatives from Black-owned galleries founded in the past decade, the conversation will bridge generations, uncovering unique perspectives and shared experiences. Don’t miss this chance to explore the varied histories and the multiple futures of Black artistic spaces and opportunities.

Featured participants include: Peg Alston (Peg Alston Fine Art), Richard Beavers (Richard Beavers Gallery), Erwin John and Stevenson Dunn, Jr. (The Bishop Gallery), Bill Hodges (Bill Hodges Gallery), and Naima Wood (Dorsey's Fine Art Gallery)

The roundtable discussion will be followed by a light reception at the Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery, a six-minute walk away. Please feel welcome to join one or both events. Our newly released exhibition catalogue will be available for purchase at both Roosevelt House and the gallery.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Founded by artists Nigel Jackson and Patricia Grey in 1969, Acts of Art was first located at 31 Bedford Street and later moved to 15 Charles Street in the West Village. In 1971, the gallery mounted Rebuttal to the Whitney Museum Exhibition, the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition’s strategic response to the Whitney’s concurrent Contemporary Black Artists in America. That same year, the gallery hosted the inaugural exhibition of the Black women artists collective Where We At. Before Acts of Art closed in 1975, it presented one- and two-person exhibitions by twenty-six different artists, and numerous group exhibitions. Acts of Art in Greenwich Village centers Acts of Art and its director’s curatorial vision, tracing the gallery’s exhibition history as it intersects with other histories of Black art and artists in New York—and with formations like the BECC, Where We At, and the Weusi Artists. Installed in Hunter College’s Leubsdorf Gallery, the exhibition features artworks from the late 1960s and 1970s by fourteen artists with close ties to the gallery, a number of which were first shown at Acts of Art. A catalog with the gallery’s complete exhibition history is available to purchase and essays on key group exhibitions, including the first show of the Black women artists collective “Where We At,”.

This exhibition is made possible by the The Leonard A. Lauder Exhibition and Catalogue Fund. The exhibition's catalog has been supported by a grant from the Wolf Kahn Foundation and the Emily Mason and Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation on behalf of artists Emily Mason and Wolf Kahn.

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