EMANCIPATION: The Unfinished Project of LIBERATION
Explore the exhibition with this family guide!
Before we see all the great artwork in the museum, let’s look at the words Emancipation
(Ee-man-suh-pay-shun) and Liberation.
Emancipation means to set someone free. In the United States, it often refers to the Emancipation Proclamation, which was an order in the year 1863 from President Lincoln that declared that all enslaved people would be free.
Liberation is the act and ongoing process of freeing yourself or others.
Just SAYING someone is free is not enough. People have to DO the work to make sure everyone is free.
While in the museum, think about what does it mean to be free?
In this exhibition, 7 living Black artists were asked to make art based on the question What does liberation mean to you? Their ideas were paired with artworks that were made a very long time ago. The ways people think about problems often change overtime, so the ways these artists thought of emancipation changed over time as well.
Can you tell which artworks are very old and which ones are new?
Draw a circle around the ones that are new, and draw a square around ones that are old.
Sadie Barnette’s art allows us to think about several moments in history from where we are right now.
First, let’s think about the work of the Black Panther Party. The Black Panthers were groups of men and women who fought for the safety, freedom, education, and success of Black people in the U.S. in the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s.
They created important social programs. These programs included health clinics, legal help, and free food programs, including a breakfast program for children that influenced public schools across the nation.
The strength of the group sparked anger in many people, including in the government. At that time, some people were angry that non-white people had all the same rights as them. The government followed members of the Black Panthers, arrested them often for imagined crimes to try to scare them so they would quit the Black Panthers.
Sadie’s father, Rodney, led a group of Black Panthers. Sadie’s artwork uses documents originally created by the US government to hurt her Dad over the years that they followed him. She uses glitter, roses, colors, and more to give the pages a different meaning—one of love and affection. While some people saw her Dad as a threat, she knows him to be a protector and loving father.
DID YOU KNOW?
You’ve probably heard of the superhero Black Panther. That character was inspired by the Black Panther Party and the work they did to help Black communities.
Imagine
this is your living room. Who shares this space with you? What would you draw in the frames?
— Fannie Lou Hamer
The 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution ended slavery. It was now illegal for a human being to be owned or considered someone’s personal property. However, in that amendment, slavery or forced labor remains legal as the punishment for crime. Since the end of slavery, people in power continue to find ways to oppress
Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.
Black and Brown communities. One way is through incarceration. Extreme rates of punishment and imprisonment is mass incarceration.
Sable Elyse Smith’s work can help us think about the impact of prisons on families. At first glance, the sculpture is like a toy jack but made of seats like those found throughout prisons in the cafeteria and visiting areas. Play, childhood, and education are taken away in the school-to-prison pipeline, a system that makes it easier for young people to go to jail. Everyone should be free and free from any threat to their liberation.
Liberation is ongoing work!
WHAT IS AN AMENDMENT?
An amendment is an additional rule or law that is added to the US Constitution, which is the rule book for the country. Sometimes a new rule should be made to meet the needs of all people.
SLAVERY is a SYSTEM of buying, selling, and owning people as property. Someone FORCED into this system is enslaved.
Liberation is hard work, but there is still beauty and joy in it. Maya Freelon’s work helps us talk about how to hold opposite thoughts at the same time.
Tissue paper is a delicate, but strong material to create from. On the journey towards liberation, we learn terrible truths of history and have personal experiences with trauma and deep sadness. These experiences are powerful, but don’t have to be the full story. There are also beautiful, joy-filled moments that make the experience whole.
from This Here Flesh
Maya learned quilt-making with her grandmother, Queen Mother Frances J. Pierce, aka Granny Fanny, during the summers they spent together. She also shares this experience “taught me to make something out of nothing.” Freelon also lived with her grandmother while she attended art school. This is when she discovered the beautiful stained tissue paper among basement treasure that changed how she makes her art.
Maya’s installation has the possibility to be anything. The tissue quilt emphasizes connection, imagination, and becoming. What does freedom feel like? What does It look like? What colors and textures do you see? This is one way we can think about abstract art.
Joy keeps any one emotion from swallowing us whole.
— Cole Arthur Riley
Abstract art is art that doesn’t look exactly like a person, place, or thing. Sometimes Abstract art looks kind of like something we’ve seen in the world. Sometimes it is color, shapes, and lines, made to express emotions and feelings—things that can be really hard to describe because we can’t see them.
We just looked at Maya Freelon’s colorful artwork, which is very abstract. You will see more work by her in another room, where there are other abstract works.
Can you find this artwork by Jeffrey Meris?
No matter what the method an artist uses, art is a powerful tool to talk about ideas, dreams, and emotions. Use the space below to create an abstract or realistic artwork based on your experience today.
does emancipation or freedom mean to YOU?
What
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