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Anthony Barboza's Kamoinge Photographers Group, the all African American photographers groups poses together, a man in the middle holds a camera to his face to take the picture

Anthony Barboza (American, born 1944), Kamoinge Photographers Group, 1973, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2019.249 © Anthony Barboza

Ming Smith's America seen through Stars and Stripes, black and white photograph of an African American man standing in front of a window reflecting the New York City sidewalk, behind the window hang three American flag banners

Ming Smith (American), America seen through Stars and Stripes, New York City, New York, printed ca. 1976, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 2016.241 © Ming Smith

Louis Draper's Untitled [Boy and H], black and white photograph of a lone African American boy sauntering away from an "H" written in a black square on the wall behind him

Louis Draper (American, 1935-2002), Untitled [Boy and H], 1961, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, National Endowment for the Arts Fund for American Art, 2013.282 © Louis H. Draper Preservation Trust, Nell D. Winston, trustee

Beuford Smith's Two Bass Hit, black and white photograph of blurry silhouettes of two upright bass players

Beuford Smith (American, born 1941), Two Bass Hit, Lower East Side, 1972, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment, 2017.36 © Beuford Smith/Césaire

Louis Draper's Fannie Lou Hamer, an up-close photograph of an African American Woman in black and white

Louis Draper (American, 1935-2002), Fannie Lou Hamer, Mississippi, 1971, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, National Endowment for the Arts Fund for American Art, 2015.150 © Louis H. Draper Preservation Trust, Nell D. Winston, trustee

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Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop

February 25, 2022–May 15, 2022

Western & Southern Galleries (Gallery 232).

Ticketed. Free for Members. Download Press Release (PDF).

Friends of Photography. Friends of African American Art.

 

Working Together is the first major museum exhibition about the Kamoinge Workshop, a groundbreaking African American photographers’ collective founded in New York City in 1963. The founders chose the name Kamoinge—meaning “a group of people acting and working together” in the Gikuyu language of Kenya—to reflect their shared dedication to community, collective action, and a global outlook.

As the Civil Rights era and the Black Arts Movement developed around them, Kamoinge members met to share work and engage in conversation about their artistic goals and the meaning of their endeavor as a group—including youth mentorship and the creation of exhibition spaces and publication platforms for Black photographers. In a diverse range of personal styles, they produced artistically superlative, formally inventive imagery dealing with human relationships, political life, the cultural scene, and the notion of global Black experience. They sought mentorship from elders like the photographer Roy DeCarava and opened avenues for a subsequent generation of Black artists.

While Kamoinge remains active to this day with an expanded membership, this exhibition focuses on the Workshop’s formative decades—the 1960s and 1970s. The fourteen featured artists, nine of whom are living and working now, shaped Kamoinge together and remain central to its dialogue. They are Anthony Barboza, Adger Cowans, C. Daniel Dawson, Louis Draper, Albert R. Fennar, Ray Francis, Herman Howard, James Mannas Jr., Herbert Randall, Herb Robinson, Beuford Smith, Ming Smith, Shawn Walker, and Calvin Wilson.

Admission to Working Together includes entry to the concurrent special exhibition David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History.

WITH OUR COMMUNITIES: The Black Futures Series

To honor and continue the work of painter David Driskell and the Kamoinge Workshop photographers, the museum has partnered with ArtWorks, Cincy Nice, OhioDance, the Robert O’Neal Multicultural Art Center, and WordPlay Cincy to create the Black Futures Series. This multifaceted series of happenings and conversations engages local, established and aspiring Black visual and performing artists in building mentor networks, creating and occupying creative platforms within and beyond arts institutions, sharing histories, and nurturing artistic growth and excellence.

Visit the Black Futures Series virtual hub to learn about what’s happening and how you can participate.

 

The Black Futures Series is supported by GBBN, LPK, and the Arts Midwest GIG Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from Ohio Arts Council.

Additional support has been provided by Ohio Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the federal ARP Act of 2021.

Events and Programs

If you need accessibility accommodations for this program or event, please email [email protected]. Please contact us at least two weeks in advance to ensure accommodations can be made.

 

Joint Members Opening

Thursday, February 24, 2022, 5–7 p.m., Great Hall, Western and Southern Galleries

Celebrate the concurrent opening of Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop and David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History with light bites, a cash bar, and self-guided exhibition previews.

 

Black Future Series: Artist Talk by Countess V. Winfrey and Artist Pathways panel conversation

March 16, 2022, virtual. View the recordings here.

Organized in partnership with OhioDance. Choreographer Countess V. Winfrey shares insight into her process creating Homage: What was, Is, To Come, the winning proposal for the Black Futures Series capstone performance commission. Arts leaders April Berry, Chiquita Mullins Lee, Rodney Veal, and Tamara Williams engage in conversation about writing successful project proposals.

 

Moving Images

Black Art: In the Absence of Light
Thursday, March 17, 2022, 7–10 p.m. and view on demand here.

Program includes the premiere of a new short video featuring Kamoinge Workshop photographer Shawn Walker, feature film Black Art: In the Absence of Light (dir. Sam Pollard, 2021), and a live stream conversation with art historian and Consulting Director of Strategic Planning for Kamoinge, Inc., Halima Taha.

 

Fine Art Flow

Thursday, March 31, 2022, 6–7:30 p.m.

Guests must bring their own yoga mats. Water bottles are not allowed in the galleries.

$7 members, $15 non-members. Reservations Required. Capacity is limited.

Purchase Tickets

Join Erin DeSantis, museum docent and yoga instructor, for a gallery chat in special exhibitions, David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History and Working Together: The photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop. After the chat, we'll enjoy a 60-minute yoga flow in gallery 229. This class is accessible to participants of all levels and abilities, and various modifications will be offered.

 

Black Futures Series Keynote

A Conversation on Black Arts Collectives—Past, Present, Future

Thursday, April 14, 2022, 7–8 p.m., followed by public reception. View the recording here.

Free, limited seating, registration not required.

Toilynn O’Neal, Founding Director of the Robert O’Neal Multicultural Arts Center, hosts a discussion about the significance and importance of Black Art Collectives and movements, with a distinguished panel of Black artists including artists Jimi Jones, James Pate, Annie Ruth, and Cincinnati-born Kamoinge Workshop photographer, Beuford Smith.  

 

Black Futures Series: Creativity in Dialogue

Thursdays, April 14, 21, and 28, 2022, 6:30–7 p.m.

Free, including free entry to exhibitions.

Join us on select Thursday evenings in April as CPS Aiken New Tech High School students bring the Kamoinge and Driskell exhibition galleries to life with spoken word performances inspired by the artworks on view, organized in partnership with WordPlay Cincy.

 

Evenings for Educators

Thursday, April 21, 2022, 4–7 p.m.

Registration is required.

Purchase Tickets

Evenings for Educators is the Cincinnati Art Museum’s monthly teacher professional development program. Through the lens of the Cincinnati Art Museum’s permanent collection and special exhibitions, Evenings for Educators supports all subjects taught in the classroom.

We encourage a STREAM approach as well as 21st Century Learning strategies in the museum and classroom. This program is offered for teachers of all grade levels and disciplines, art appreciation volunteers, pre-service education majors, teaching artists as well as community and museum educators.

TOPIC: Special Exhibitions Highlight: David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History and Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop

For our April program will we hear a presentation from curators Julie Aronson and Nathaniel Stein on two special exhibitions featuring visionary Black artists, followed by a docent-guided tour of the exhibitions and networking with fellow educators. As a special treat, enjoy CPS high school students’ spoken-word responses to the artwork, presented in partnership with WordPlay Cincy. Please join us for this in-person program.

Presented by US Bank

 

Black Futures Series: Active Imagination: ArtWorks/CAM youth artist exhibition openings 

Thursday, April 28 and Friday, April 29, 2022 

Free

Celebrate the opening of two group exhibitions by the youth artists and mentors participating in the ArtWorks Spring II Youth Exhibition Program—a Black Futures Series partnership inspired by the work of David Driskell and the photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop.

Please visit the Black Futures Series virtual hub for times, venues, and more information about the Active Imagination partnership.

 

Art After Dark: Sight, Sound & Jazz, and the Black Futures Series Walnut Hills jazz progressive 

Friday, April 29, 2022, 5–9 p.m. at the museum, & till late in Walnut Hills 

Celebrate special exhibitions David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History and Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop with live jazz music from AfroChine, spoken word performances, food for purchase, cash bars and free admission to all exhibitions. Free admission. RSVP not required. #ArtAfterDarkCincy

Please arrive early or consider taking an Uber/Lyft. Parking is limited.

Art After Dark is sponsored by Health Carousel.

 

Black Futures Series: Capstone Performance

Homage: What was, Is, To Come
Sunday, May 8, 2022, 7–8 p.m.

Experience new dance work by choreographer Countess V. Winfrey. Featuring an original score and a spoken word tour guide, Winfrey’s Homage transports the audience through museum spaces in a three-part performance bringing light to the Black experience of the past and present, and the dream of a Black Future in the Now. Organized in partnership with OhioDance.

Audio Exhibition

Audio tour stops, audio exhibition texts, and transcripts enhance your gallery visit or bring the artists’ voices to you wherever you are.

Access Audio Exhibition

Explore More

Exhibition Catalogue

Working Together: Louis Draper and the Kamoinge Workshop explores Draper’s life and work, the history of The Black Photographers Annual, Kamoinge’s position in contemporary studies of the history of photography, the notion of collectivity among African American artists in the 1960s and 1970s, the social and political context of Kamoinge’s formation, jazz, and Kamoinge’s influence on contemporary African American photographers. Published by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 260 pages, fully illustrated, with essays by Romi Crawford, Erina Duganne, Sarah Eckhardt, Bill Gaskins, John Edwin Mason, Deborah Willis.

Buy Now

 

Recommended Resources

Louis H. Draper Archive Portal  Explore the most extensive publicly held archive documenting Louis Draper’s life and work, and Kamoinge’s history. 

The Black Photographers Annual  Access the Annual from home and learn more about its history.

Kamoinge, Inc. Visit the website of today’s Kamoinge collective.

 

Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop is organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

 

Generously supported by the John A. Schroth Family Charitable Trust.

 

Presenting sponsor:

P&G

 

Additional support by the Charles Scott Riley III Foundation.