Creating Spaces Bridging Art, History, and Access

In 2003, for the first time in its 62year history, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., featured an African-American artist in a solo retrospective, “The Art of Romare Bearden.” It was considered the most comprehensive display of Bearden’s work to that date.

A central component of the exhibition was a film by Liz Laitman Hughes LHT’88 about the artist, his influences, and his process. Actors Danny Glover and Morgan Freeman and jazz musician Wynton Marsalis lent their voices to the film.

“That was the second film I made, and it is the one I am most proud of,” said Hughes, who produced 22 documentary films for the gallery over the next 16 years, a period she calls her golden age because she loved it so much. “Here you have an important artist who finally gets a place in the canon of art history, and

I was part of shaping the exhibit. It was incredible.”

A 12-minute version of the Bearden film was shown continuously in the exhibition; a 30-minute version was screened in a large auditorium. The project drew Hughes into the Harlem Renaissance and the people, artists, and music of 1920s New York City reflected in Bearden’s collages.

“Looking at the art, adding sound and images for context, and integrating all of it elevated the exhibit’s impact,” said Hughes, noting that Marsalis was interviewed for the film because he collects Bearden, who was heavily influenced by jazz. “Wynton’s reflections on the art allowed visitors to see the rhythms in Bearden’s painting in a way that made the art more accessible.”

For nearly 30 years, Hughes has worked in museums inside the Capital

Beltway, including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Newseum before its closing in 2019. The many exhibits explored such topics as the 1936 Olympics in Berlin under Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship, the falsification of photographs in Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, Sergei Diaghilev and the founding of the Ballets Russes, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre in Paris.

Hughes lives with her husband and 14-year-old son among the 74 museums inside the beltway, but she traces her path into art back to Low-Heywood Thomas. She arrived in Grade 5 and graduated with the last all-girls class before the school merged with King School to become King & Low-Heywood Thomas School.

“It was very good feminist training,” said Hughes, who appreciates the benefits that come from an education steeped in the arts. “At Low-Heywood Thomas, we had a chance to read many female authors and learn about history from different perspectives. I was reading Maya Angelou among many women authors that were not part of the average curriculum at the time.”

As a senior in the Upper School, a for-credit internship at Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan proved pivotal. Her work on an exhibition of local artists began her career in galleries.

Hughes had another inspiring internship while studying art history at Skidmore College. This one was at Sotheby's, where she was exposed to the world of commercial art. The affluent art market resonated with her.

“I remember questioning why all of this great art was not in museums,” she said, adding that she discussed the topic at length with her father, an estate attorney. “He knew the cycle of wealthy people buying art and lending it to museums. A lot of that art never makes it to the museum. That was my first foray into art for the people, and to this day, that is my passion.”

In 2021, Hughes joined the Smithsonian Institution, where she now serves as project manager for “Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past,” a pan-institutional initiative exploring the history of racism and building pathways toward a more equitable future.

“Museums have a duty to tell difficult stories and to consider history we haven't reckoned with,” said Hughes, adding that the initiative seeks to explore systemic racism and examine areas where it is most identifiable, thereby making change possible. She travels to assist museums within and outside the Smithsonian with their programs.

“It has been exciting,” she said, “to investigate how the Smithsonian can support other organizations so that they can create spaces for their audiences to look at past problems and go forward thinking about how they might improve upon things.”

Hughes said the Smithsonian is intentional in its effort to increase access to its art by lending artifacts and exhibitions to affiliates.

“The Smithsonian represents all of America,” she said. “We want to make sure that people who are not able to travel to Washington are still able to benefit from our programs.”

As Hughes works on the Smithsonian’s multiyear initiative, she hopes to continually increase access to art and learning.

“My mother taught me to do everything and read everything,” she said. “She inspired me to be a lifelong learner, and I am trying to be that influence for my own son. I hope through my work I am also creating opportunities for communities throughout the country.”