Wednesday, December 21, 2016

30 Americans Free Community Festival at Tacoma Art Museum, Sunday January 8, 2017



Tacoma, WA – The nationally acclaimed exhibition 30 Americans made its West Coast debut at Tacoma Art Museum and has been widely appreciated by local visitors. Enjoy a free day to see it before it leaves Tacoma. Celebrate the positive impact of this exhibition at a festival on Sunday, January 8, 10 am – 4 pm.
Participants can help make a collaborative mural, take part in dance, hear spoken word, tour 30 Americans and TAM’s other exhibitions, and more.
A festival highlight will be "Bebop in Basquiat", an original live musical performance by the Steve Griggs Ensemble. Listen to dynamic renditions of the jazz that inspired artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, including compositions by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis. The band will introduce tunes with biographies and references to Basquiat’s paintings. The Steve Griggs Ensemble has created original site-specific programs of jazz and stories that have twice won the ASCAP/CMA award for Adventurous Programming in Contemporary Music. They have performed at the historic Panama Hotel, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Bumbershoot, Jazz Alley, Vashon Island Allied Arts, and Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.
Spoken word has been very popular with TAM visitors. The festival provides another opportunity to hear relevant, powerful performances in the galleries by Seattle writer Georgia McDade and poet Jacqueline Ware, both members of the African American Writers Alliance. Listen to their tag team poetry performance while you wander through the 30 Americans galleries. Their words will amplify and build upon the themes presented in the works of art.
Painter and dancer Barbi Leifert will facilitate an art-making activity inspired by dance. “When I began seriously painting and showing my work in galleries, I returned to dance as the theme of my pieces. It is what I know; dance is universal, everyone can relate to it and there is a dancer inside each of us. The African American community's contributions to dance, art and music are a triumph we have all enjoyed,” she said. Leifert’s project will be followed by a dance-along with Chris Daigre, a major force in the Seattle dance scene, with music created by African American musicians.
Visitors can make transformational masks at the Breaking Stereotypes/Redefining Identity workshop led by Beverly Naidus and Carol Rashawnna Williams. They’ll talk about how media and institutions can shape stereotypical thinking. Workshop participants will explore the stereotypes they've encountered, then envision new ways of thinking about identity through the mask making process. Pre-registration for this workshop is encouraged.
Shurvon Haynes of Shurvon Shaynlincia Fashion and Fine Arts Designs will lead a collaborative mural project in the TAM Studio. Haynes is a visual artist whose style varies according to supplies and mood as she makes collage assemblage paintings. She studied visual art at the University of Washington. Visitors can also make art with artist Jasmine Brown, who will facilitate a Kehinde Wiley-inspired portrait activity.


Schedule of events:
§  10:00 am: 30 Americans Free Community Festival begins
§  All day:
·        Kehinde Wiley-inspired portraits with Jasmine Brown
·        Collaborative mural with Shurvon Haynes
·        “What does it mean to be an American?” community response activity
§  11:30 am – 12:00 pm: Tag Team Poetry in 30 Americans galleries with Georgia McDade and Jacqueline Ware
§  1:00 – 3:00 pm: Breaking Stereotypes/Redefining Identity workshop with Beverly Naidus and Carol Rashawnna Williams
§  1:00 – 2:00 pm: Stephen Griggs Jazz Ensemble performance
§  2:00 – 3:00 pm: Artmaking inspired by dance with Barbi Leifert
§  3:00 – 3:30 pm: Interactive Dance performance by Chris Daigre
§  4:00 pm: 30 Americans Free Community Festival ends
The last day to see 30 Americans is Sunday, January 15, 2017. This critically acclaimed traveling exhibition showcases 45 works including paintings, photographs, installations, videos and sculptures by prominent African American artists who have emerged since the 1970s as trailblazers in the contemporary art scene. The artists weave evocative themes of race and identity in America, the struggle for civil rights, history, gender, popular culture and media imagery through many of the works. The exhibition invites viewers to consider multiple perspectives and to reflect upon the similarities and differences of their own experiences and identities.
30 Americans is drawn from the Rubell Family Collection in Miami – one of the largest private contemporary art collections in the world.
30 Americans Free Community Festival is generously supported by Portland (OR) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; Tacoma (WA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; and Tacoma Arts Commission. Seasonal support provided by ArtsFund.

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Image Credits, top to bottom:
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bird On Money, 1981. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 66 × 90 inches. Courtesy of the Rubell Family Collection
Kehinde Wiley, Equestrian Portrait of the Count Duke Olivares, 2005. Oil on canvas, 108 × 108 inches.
Courtesy of the Rubell Family Collection


30 Americans is organized by the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. Support for this exhibition provided by Union Bank and ArtsFund. 30 Americans is endorsed by the following community groups: Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (Tacoma Alumnae Chapter); Jack and Jill of America, Inc.; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Tacoma Branch; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Seattle King County; Northwest African American Museum; Portland (OR) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; Tacoma (WA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; Tacoma Pierce County Black Collective; and Tacoma Urban League (TUL). Program support for 30 Americans is provided by Stephanie Jordan State Farm Insurance; Portland (OR) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; and Tacoma (WA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated. 30 Americans Free Community Festival is generously supported by Portland (OR) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; Tacoma (WA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; and Tacoma Arts Commission. Seasonal support provided by ArtsFund.

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