Vote!
Vote!
On View at the Neil L. and Angelica Zander Rudenstine Gallery
October 2 - December 7, 2024
Tuesdays - Fridays, 10am - 4pm
Closed on university holidays
Curator's Tour: Thursday, November 21, 3:00pm
As we approach the historic U.S. presidential election with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the first Black woman to be the Democratic Party’s nominee, we retroactively gaze back toward figures and organizing efforts that force American democracy to be thrown into relief, reexamined and held accountable.
On the occasion of Harvard Black Alumni Weekend, the largest alumni gathering in the University’s history, the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research proudly presents VOTE! - an exhibition of artworks featuring those who dared to define what civic participation and possibility can and should be.
Through primarily a figurative and historical lens, this exhibition features work by Haili Francis A.L.M. ‘18, Rico Gatson, Lisa Jones Gentry, and Titus Kaphar as well as selections from the Hutchins Center’s permanent collection which includes artists Jules R. Arthur, Mariana R. Cook, Shepard Fairey, Ray A. Frieden ‘65, M.Arch. ‘69, Harvey J. Hacker ‘65, M.Arch. ‘69, Isaac S. Hathaway, Richard McCrary, David Mosley, James Roux, Robert A. “Bobby” Sengstacke, Moneta Sleet Jr., Charles W. White, and John W. Wilson.
In each work, the viewer is presented with art that speaks to the past as well as the present. As such, the exhibition begins with thoughtful reflection on this country’s original sin of enslavement. Fueled by the failed promises of the Reconstruction era and the terror of state-sanctioned violence during the Jim Crow period, numerous individuals emerged as courageous African Americans, who caused what the late Congressman John Lewis called “good trouble, necessary trouble.”
The collective impact highlighted in this exhibition set the stage for massive transformations in American society and continues to galvanize activists in the ongoing struggle to protect and realize the promise of democracy. Rooted in experiences of grief, protest, righteous rebellion, and the power of Black artistry, we hope that VOTE! ignites viewers to move toward bold approaches in justice, liberation, and self-making.
VOTE! is curated by Dell Marie Hamilton, Acting Director of the Cooper Gallery for African & African American Art and is co-sponsored by the Harvard Black Alumni Society, the Harvard Alumni Association and Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.
