Hello my name is Will Kendrick and I am a Gallery Attendant at the museum. I will be reading the Collective Actions section text for Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop.

The objects on this wall and in the surrounding cases tell a story of committed group endeavor. The Kamoinge story is about collective action on many levels. The Workshop and its networks took collective action to nurture and uplift Black creativity in the United States. Our ability to encounter the story today is due to Kamoinge’s collective actions to preserve and pass on knowledge—whether through mentor relationships or decades-long efforts to record and share their history.

While this part of the exhibition relates key points about the activities and organizational history of the Workshop, it also poses questions for present-day audiences. There are local, national, and international networks working to nurture and uplift Black creativity today. How are their stories being recorded and shared? How can institutions support and platform their efforts?

Locally, the museum has partnered with five organizations— ArtWorks, Cincy Nice, the Robert O’Neal Multicultural Art Center, WordPlay Cincy, and OhioDance—to explore these questions through a series of gatherings conceived to honor the collective actions of the Kamoinge Workshop and David Driskell, whose work is on view in the adjacent gallery. For more information about gatherings, visit cincyart.org/kamoinge

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