The Romare Bearden Foundation has moved to Harlem!
The Romare Bearden Foundation has relocated to Harlem, where Bearden lived, worked and found creative inspiration.
Our office is located on the second floor of the historic Theresa Towers at 2090 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard at 125th Street.
As this exciting transition takes place, we continue to realize our mission of preserving, perpetuating and making publicly accessible Bearden's extraordinary legacy. Here are the projects and programs we're currently working on:
- Our traveling exhibition From Process to Print: Graphic Works by Romare Bearden began its 3 year national tour at Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Maine on October 1. It has since exhibited at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore and can now be seen at the Chicago Cultural Center through July 27. For more on this tour click HERE.
- The 124 page, full color exhibition catalogue accompanying the exhibition was published by Pomegranate.
- In March, 2010 the major symposium, Romare Bearden in the Public Realm, was presented at the August Wilson Center for African American Art in Pittsburgh, where Bearden spent some formative years. Over 22 scholars and artist convened to discuss Pittsburgh's influence on Bearden and the works that fall outside the studio. This included his cartoons, murals and printmaking.
Sign up on our e-mail list and we’ll keep you informed about our progress, and our activities and programs.
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From the 2007 Symposium in Chicago comes the book of essays...
Bearden in the Modernist Tradition
Introduction by Pamela Ford. Text by Robert O'Meally, Kobena Mercer, et al.
ISBN: 978-0-615-20291-4 US Price: $30.00
Pbk, 8 x 11 in. / 134 pgs /26 color / 9 b&w
This book is based on the 2007 Bearden Symposium held at Columbia College in Chicago. This volume examines Bearden's relationship to Modernism, Postmodernism and the avant-garde, through his wide ranging interests and associations with artists, intellectuals and musicians of his era--including Duke Ellington, Ralph Ellinton and Staurt Davis. With essays by Kobena Mercer, Robert G. O'Meally, Dawoud Bey, Geoffrey Jacques, Courtney Martin, Paul D. Miller, Amy Mooney, Kymberly Pinder, Greg Foster-Rice, Rael Jero Salley, Helen Shannon, and others.
Distributed by D.A.P. / Distributor Art Publishers
Romare Bearden in The Classroom – NEW VISUAL ARTS CURRICULUM AVAILABLE!!!
‘Produced by the Romare Bearden Foundation, the content rich curriculum, Romare Bearden in the Classroom, includes lesson plans, an annotated teacher’s guide, art reproductions/posters, a CD-ROM and historical timeline. All lessons are aligned with the NYC Blueprint for the Arts and the NEA curriculum standards.
To purchase the Romare Bearden in The Classroom Visual Arts Curriculum
click HERE
National Symposium Series
March 2010
PITTSBURGH Symposium
In retrospect
The two-day symposium was held on March 26 & 27 at the brand new August Wilson Center for African American Culture in downtown Pittsburgh (www.augustwilsoncenter.org)
This year's symposium examined how Bearden merged the message and medium of his art, especially in the form of political cartoons, public art commissions and prints, enabling him to reach and communicate artistically and socially outside of the studio and with a broader public.
The artist's strongly defined social and political consciousness was shaped by his early childhood experiences in the southern United States, Harlem and Pittsburgh. His commitment to social causes is evident by his involvement as a social activist and by a lifelong commitment to the causes of artists of African descent.
Pittsburgh became a later home to Bearden's maternal grandmother and features large in many of his iconic works. In turn his work was the inspiration for Pittsburgh's own August Wilson. The playwright's Piano Lesson was directly drawn from Bearden's painting of the same name.
The symposium featured a musical performance by the Alton Merrell Trio with Alton Merrell on Piano, Dwanye Dolphin on Bass, James Johnson, III on Drums.
2010 Symposium Panels and Participants
Keynote address by Dr. Mary Schmidt-Campbell, Dean, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU
Bearden in Posterity
- Bridget Cooks, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine
- David Driskell, Artist and Scholar, Driskell Center, MD
- Jerald Melberg, Jerald Melberg Gallery, NC
- Moderator Jacqueline Francis, Ph.D., California College of the Arts
Bearden and the Performing Arts
- Walter Rutledge, Choreographer and Associate Artistic Director of the Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Theatre, NY
- Sandra Shannon, Ph.D., Howard University, DC
- Harry Elam, Ph.D., Stanford University, CA
- Moderator Kimberly C. Ellis Dr. Goddess, Ph.D. & performer, PA
Pittsburgh Memories
- Laurence Glasco, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
- John M. Brewer, Trolley Station Oral History Museum, PA
- Kymberly N. Pinder, Ph.D., School of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Moderator Joe Trotter, Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University, PA
A CONVERSATION with John Edgar Wideman writer, Brown University, RI
with Jacqueline Francis, Ph.D., California College of the Arts
Art in the Service of Politics
- Robert G. O'Meally, Ph.D., Columbia University, NY
- Amy Kirschke, Ph.D., University North Carolina-Wilmington
- Stacy I. Morgan, Ph.D., University of Alabama
- Moderator Kirk Savage, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
The Medium Is the Message
- Camara Dia Holloway, Ph.D., University of Delaware
- Carol Brown, Founding President of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
- Nikki Greene, Ph.D., Swarthmore College
- Moderator Richard Purcell, PhD., Carnegie-Mellon University
Printmaking as Practice
- Kathy Caraccio, Artist and Master Printer, NY
- Mary Lee Corlett, National Gallery of Art, DC
- Joseph Kleineman and Maureen Turci, JK Fine Art Editions, NJ
- Moderator Pamela Ford, Artist and former Program Director of the Romare Bearden Foundation
This program was made possible by The Heinz Endowments.
The Heinz Endowments support efforts to make southwestern Pennsylvania a premier place to live and work, a center for learning and educational excellence, and a region that embraces diversity and inclusion.
ANNUAL ROMARE BEARDEN SOUTHERN SENSIBILITY TRIBUTE GALA - September 25, 2008
The Romare Bearden Southern Sensibility Tribute Gala, will be held on September 25, 2008, at the exquisite new Espace on West 42nd Street and 11th Avenue. The theme this year will focus on the impact of the South, it’s people and culture, on Bearden’s art and life. Bank of America will be one of our honorees.
Our annual galas celebrate Bearden’s extraordinary life, art and legacy as well as gain support for our mission and raise awareness about our programs. Proceeds from the event support the Foundation’s efforts to create arts and educational opportunities for young people and to inspire them with examples from Bearden’s own life and work. As well proceeds support programs that nurture the artistic and professional development of talented, aspiring young African American artists and scholars. Together these goals, along with preserving and perpetuating Bearden’s rich artistic and intellectual legacy, ensure that he continues to have an impact on this and future generations.
CHICAGO SYMPOSIUM - IN RETROSPECT
The well attended symposium, Romare Bearden in the Modernist Tradition, which was funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art, was held on April 20 – 21, 2007, at Columbia College Chicago at the Film Row Cinema Theater. The symposium, part of the Bearden National Symposium series, launched in 1998 as a legacy program of the Foundation, encourages and supports new scholarship on Bearden in association with colleges and universities across the country.
Cultural theorist and critic Kobena Mercer PhD open the symposium on Friday, April 20th with a key note address titled Romare Bearden’s Modernism: Critical Dialogues in the Diaspora Imagination. Dr. Mercer is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Visual Culture and Media at Middlesex University in London. He is also the author of Romare Bearden: African American Modernism at Mid-Century in Art History and Romare Bearden, 1964 Collage as Kunstwollen.
On Saturday, April 21st a full day of presentations included scholarly papers and conversations between Bearden’s colleagues and friends that were based on the key themes like: Bearden’s practice in relation to early modernism and the artists and artistic movements that influenced him; the interchange between Bearden and his peers in several disciplines; Bearden’s influence on subsequent generations of artists as a towering figure in African American art and his far-reaching influence in the African Diaspora; and Bearden’s use of photography, photostat and other technology through the lens of post-modernist discourse and practice.
Presenters included:
- Emma Amos, Artist, Professor of Art, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey,
- Dawoud Bey, Artist, Professor of Photography, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
- Allen Edmunds Master printmaker and President of Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- Melvin Edwards, Artist, Professor of Art, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey (Retired)
- Diedra Harris-Kelley, Artist, Program Associate, Romare Bearden Foundation
- Geoffrey Jacques, Ph.D., Poet and Critic, Faculty of English Department, Lehman College, City University of New York, Bronx, New York
- Greg Foster Rice, Ph.D., Art History, Assistant Professor, Art History, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
- Courtney Martin, Ph.D. candidate, Art History, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
- Paul D. Miller/DJ Spooky, Conceptual artist, writer, and musician.
- Amy Mooney, Ph.D., Professor, Art History, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
- Robert O'Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of American Literature and Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University New York, New York
- Kym Pinder, Associate Professor of Art History and Director of the Master of Arts in Art History program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
- Raél Jero Salley, Ph.D. candidate, The University of Chicago, The Committee on the History of Culture. Adjunct Faculty, Columbia College Chicago and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
- Helen Shannon, Ph.D., Art History, Director of Museum Education, University of the Arts, Philadelphia
- William T. Williams, Artist, Professor of Art, Brooklyn College, City University of New York
A publication based on the symposium Romare Bearden in the Modernist Tradition, sponsored by the Terra Foundation for American Art, will be available in early 2008
Romare Bearden in the Classroom
Romare Bearden in the Classroom, the Foundation’s new and comprehensive curriculum was made possible with funding from JP Morgan Chase and the Ford Foundation. It includes a series of 4 color lesson plans, an educator’s guide, a CD Rom of color reproductions and 5 posters. The curriculum is being distributed locally and nationally through educators’ workshops.
Educators who would like to attend a workshop or host one in their institution should contact us at info@beardenfoundation.org
Educators' Workshop
The first national educators’ workshop took place on Wednesday, April 25th at the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago. Sponsored by the Terra Foundation for American Art and was presented in cooperation with the Chicago Public Schools and the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago who hosted the workshop for sixty five educators. They represented Chicago Public Schools and several museums and community arts organizations. The day long workshop began with a greeting from the museum’s Director James Cuno and key note address by Director of Education Bob Eskridge. An introduction to the curriculum by Education Specialist and the curriculum’s author Rise Wilson included ways to integrate its content into existing lesson plans and segments of the film The Art of Romare Bearden. The participants were given a rare opportunity to view two Bearden prints in the museum’s print study room which was followed by a tour of works, similar to those that inspired Bearden, by the museum’s education staff. The final presentation by art historian Kymberly N. Pinder, Ph.D. Romare Bearden and August Wilson: History Lessons, examined the unspoken dialogue between Wilson and Bearden’s work. The latter underscored the scope of the artist’s influence and his appeal for artists in several disciplines.
Cinque Artists Program (CAP)
Through the newly established Cinque Artists Program (CAP), the Foundation continues the legacy of Cinque Gallery, an important venue for African American artists that was co-founded by Bearden, Ernest Crichlow and Norman Lewis in 1969, and that closed permanently in 2004. As the program is developed over the next several years, CAP will assist artists at various stages by supporting them artistically and in their career and professional development through scholarships, workshops, opportunities for networking with artists and arts professionals and stipend for travel.
The program was formally launched on Thursday, March 29 with a reception at the Foundation that honored Cinque’s former director, Ruth Jett.
Two components of CAP have been launched: the Romare Bearden Scholarship at the Harlem School of the Arts and Artists Professional Development Workshops.
The Romare Bearden Scholarship at the Harlem School of the Arts
As part of it's new Cinque Artists Program, in September 2006 the Foundation launched a scholarship program at the Harlem School of the Arts. The Romare Bearden Visual Arts Scholarship at the Harlem School of the Arts is awarded to talented African American high school students enrolled in the school's visual arts program. Two scholarship recipients were selected from among the school's College Prep Program enrollees. To be selected for the program students must demonstrate financial need, a sincere interest and passion for the visual arts and a strong aspiration to continue their educational pursuits in art schools and colleges. The annual support includes tuition, registration and materials fees.
To be considered all applicants must meet the following criteria:
- be of African descent
- be enrolled in High school
- be between 15-17 years
- have a B+ average or above in school
- be interested in pursuing a career in visual arts
- establish financial need (based on Princeton Scholarship Review criteria)
- be enrolled in the Harlem School of the Arts College Prep Program
For more information contact the Harlem School of the Arts at 212.926.4100 or info@harlemschoolofthearts.org
The Romare Bearden Visual Arts Scholarship at the Harlem School of the Arts has been made possible with support from The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Estate of Nanette Bearden.
Artist Professional Development Workshops
(Fall 2007)
The Workshops bring together experts in the field to assist artists at all experience levels and stages in their career to enhance their career-building skills and opportunities for representation, exhibition and critical review. In the fall of 2007, the Foundation will offer the workshops in three general subject areas: artistic development, career management and financial management. Artistic development provides a forum to discuss the creative process and to view their art practice within a professional context at the end of their formal education. Career management assist artists navigate the gallery and museum system. Financial management provide information about the business side of being an artist, finding money for their work from grants and fellowships, protecting intellectual property, managing the money from sales and employment, preparing for retirement, etc.
For more information on the Fall workshop schedule, call: 212-924-0455. Workshops are free but reservations will be required
Phase I of Website Upgrade Project Completed!
With significant funding from the AT&T Foundation, the Romare Bearden Foundation has undertaken an extensive revision and upgrade of its website. The result is a visually arresting, content-rich, more easily navigable site that offers comprehensive information about Romare Beardens art and life and about the Foundations mission of preserving and perpetuating his legacy. The project involved updating and adding new content and sections, including a great Education Resources section and a comprehensive Timeline of Beardens life and accomplishments. Thanks to DesignPolice and fluency, the two firms that worked on the web design. Special acknowledgement to the Foundations team that worked on content and editing: Grace Stanislaus, Executive Director and Ronald Jackson, Board member and multimedia specialist, worked closely with Ellie Tweedy who volunteered an extraordinary amount of time editing the site and ensuring the accuracy of its content.