Hiram Van Gordon Gallery celebrates Black History Month
Call and Response
February 4-29, 2008
TSU's Department of Art and Watkins College of Art
partner for anArt Crawl and Opening Reception
Feb 8, 3-5pm (TSU), 6-8 (Watkins)
Community Responses to Tennessee State University’s
Permanent Collection of African Art
(African Artifacts from the Ruth Witt Collection
and Dr. Richard and Mrs. Sharon Edwards Collection)
What is a collection?
What role does context play in viewing a collection?
How do we comment on the past through the present?
In music, a call a response is composed of two distinct phrases, usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is a direct response to the first. This tradition is found in West African cultures as a form of democratic participation. Africans brought this to the New World, as seen today in the roots of gospel, blues, and jazz (to name only a few).
Tennessee State University's Hiram Van Gordon Gallery has invited, or issued a “call” to two Nashville artists, TSU Art Professor, Sam Dunson and students at McKissack Elementary. The call was to view, examine, and absorb our permanent Collection of African Art. Community Artists-In-Residence, Ash Lusk (TSU Alum) and Sabine Schlunk, and children from Su Williams' Fourth grade class, along with select art faculty have made responses to the gallery’s call, a visual contextualization of the collection. The exhibition includes their work shown alongside items from the permanent collection.
Jodi Hays, Curator, Hiram Van Gordon Gallery
