The Black Lives Matter Artist Grant Exhibition at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU officially opened this month, featuring 20 artists selected for their work stretching the definition of “socially engaged” artwork. The artists were awarded funding for the exhibit as part of the Black Lives Matter Artist Grant Program, established by Jordan Schnitzer in 2020 and designed to award funding to 60 artists at five universities whose practices demonstrate a commitment to social justice.
The PSU exhibit showcases artwork spanning several mediums including photography, video, painting, performance, textiles, sculpture, poetry and printmaking. Some featured artists used their space to showcase the realities of white supremacy, while others leaned into the intersections of Blackness, culture and creating a better world. The exhibition comes in the wake not only of a global pandemic, but after two years of protests fighting for Black lives.
“Black Lives Matter — we have all heard these words many, many times — but what do they mean? How do they affect you? How do we gain knowledge and understanding of each other? Like all of us, I struggle to know how to deal with my own thoughts (around) prejudice and (it needed the) community coming together to deal with issues of supremacy, privilege and racism,” said Schnitzer, local philanthropist and businessman who founded the museum in 2019. “So I turned to a group — artists — who from time immemorial have helped us deal with issues affecting society. The 20 artists in the exhibition force us, in different ways, to reach into our hearts, minds and souls to help find answers.”
The 20 features artists are: AnAkA, Annabelle Araya, Julia Bond, J’reyesha Brannon, Amirah Chatman, Steven Christian, Baba Wagué Diakité, Sadé DuBoise, Austin Gardner, Leila Haile, Elijah Hasan, Edmund Holmes, Willie Little, Latoya Lovely, Aiyana Monae McClinton, Jessica Mehta, Christine Miller, Annie Schutz, Sharita Towne and Kyra Watkins. The exhibition content was written by Ella Ray, a Portland-based art historian, cultural worker, curator and PSU alumna and editorial support from Nia Pipkin-Glover.
Photo by Patric Simon"Art is a tool that can be used to communicate social issues and this exhibition allows the space for these vital conversations to happen within it,” said JSMA Gallery Coordinator Tai Carpenter. “This exhibition is not only a creative platform for Black artists in Portland, but an opportunity for PSU to make a genuine commitment as an institution to what Black Lives Matter truly means."
The Black Lives Matter Artist Grant Exhibition is on display until April 30.