Museums in New York City: Studio Museum in Harlem

By Tia Dryer


For a long time, the Studio Museum in Harlem was the sole major cultural institution for art by African Americans. It's still one of the most important museums in NY, and in the world , for art that chronicles the African-American experience, particularly although not solely in urban environments. The work demonstrated here includes African-American works and Twentieth century Afro-Caribbean pieces, as well as traditional African art and artifacts. The social aspect of art is very much on view in the permanent collection of the Studio Museum, as well as a consistent theme of hunting for the African identity in an American context.

The Studio Museum has earned a tremendous amount of recognition from the community of museums in New York City, in total due to its Artists in Residence program, which permits one or two emerging studio and gallery artists of African descent to live on location while they create. This allows the artists to create art, network in the community and begin successful careers. Also, the museum is a center for the Harlem arts community by hosting dialogues, panels, lectures, classes and performances on a wide range of topics related to the African-American experience.



Situated on 125th St, fifteen blocks north of Central Park in Harlem, the Studio Museum is very much an organic product of its neighborhood. This Harlem museum is close to a considerable number of other famous locales, including the legendary Apollo Theater. Down the street, the NYC Public Libraryis one or two blocks east, and there are also a bunch of parks, including the Morningstar Park and Central Park. The neighborhood itself is a ground-breaking landmark, full of plaques and notes of significance. Once a ghetto for liberated slaves and people fleeing the repressive Jim Crow laws in the latter 1800s and early 1900s, Harlem changed into a cultural treasure throughout the 1920s and continues to play a vital role in African-American culture.

The permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem includes over 1,600 works by noted African-American artists, both in the Harlem community and around the country. These artists, including Melvin Edwards, Robert Colescott, Terry Adkins, Lois Mailou Jones, Hector Hyppolite, Norman Lewis, Betye Saar, Nari Ward and others have all had a result on the art world as well as in the larger African-American community. The overall theme of all the work within this museum is the Black identity; the museum is an important and fascinating location for anyone with an interest in American history to visit and take in. Specific themes include black liberation politics, dance, expressionism, roots and music, as well as the subjects of bigotry, sexism and the urban experience. These subjects might be questionable to some visitors, but they represent a punctual, important discussion in the larger American culture about the roles, perceptions and expectations of African-Americans in it, and it's one of many important museums in N. Y to find out about a variety of ideas, both old and new.




About the Author: