The Donald P. Sowell Committee

The Donald P. Sowell Endowment Committee (Sowell Committee) was established in 1993 as a tribute to Donald P. Sowell (1929-1989), an important Cincinnati artist and art educator.

Join the Sowell Committee Register for a Program Donate to Art & Sowell

The Sowell Committee promotes greater interaction and involvement of the African American community with the Cincinnati Art Museum. In doing so they oversee an endowment in Mr. Sowell’s name and act as a recommending body for the disbursements of its funds to promote African American art, programs, exhibitions and other art forms of interest to the African American community. The Sowell Committee also provides educational and social fundraising activities that benefit the endowment and the museum.

All programs will begin at 2 p.m., unless otherwise noted. We kindly request that you RSVP for all programs to [email protected].

Board Members

Cynthia Collins, Chair
Linda Meador, Secretary
Myra Paige-Livingston, Treasurer
Katrina Mundy, Past Chair
Consuelo Harris, Member-at-Large

Annual Dues

$50 per person

For more information, please contact the Philanthropy Office at [email protected] or 513-639-2865.

If you need accessibility accommodations, please contact us in advance at [email protected] or fill out the accessibility request form.

2025 Programs

Sunday, January 5, 2025, 2-3 p.m.
True American Landscapes: Ansel Adams and Civil Rights

Fath Auditorium, Cincinnati Art Museum

Register for True American Landscapes

Nathaniel M. Stein, Cincinnati Art Museum Curator of Photography, will explore relationships between Ansel Adams’s belief in civil rights, his ideas about American landscape and identity, and his photography. 

Arrive early or stay afterward to view the exhibition Discovering Ansel Adams. (Exhibition ticketed separately.)

This lecture is organized by the Donald P. Sowell Endowment Committee, an affiliate group of the Cincinnati Art Museum. Ticket proceeds support the Sowell Committee’s work to promote greater interaction and involvement 

of the African American community with the museum, including professional development opportunities, acquisition and display of artwork by African American artists, programs, exhibitions, and other forms of creativity of interest to the African American community.

Sunday, February 2, 2025, 2 p.m.
Sowell Endowment Committee Intern: Up-Close & Personal

Fath Auditorium, Cincinnati Art Museum
Please RSVP for this program by emailing [email protected].

Join the 2024 Sowell Endowment Committee Intern Harlem Lennox. Ms. Lennox will share her insightful internship experience\ with various departments in (at) the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Sunday, March 2, 2025, 2 p.m.
Virtual Panel Discussion - Black Art: Collecting and Being Collected

Fath Auditorium, Cincinnati Art Museum
Please RSVP for this program by emailing [email protected].

Panelists - Valerie A. Cooper, Art Appraiser and Najee Dorsey, CEO of Black Arts in America will share their knowledge and experience with collecting and buying art by Black artists. 

The discussion is moderated by Toby Sisson, Associate Professor, Visual and Performing Arts, Clark University, Atlanta, Georgia. The panel was organized and sponsored by the Arts Worcester, a non-profit organization in Massachusetts.

Sunday, April 6, 2025, 2 p.m.
Ellis Trail to Nicodemus: The End of the Journey to the Promise Land

Fath Auditorium, Cincinnati Art Museum
Please RSVP for this program by emailing [email protected].

Join Jerry Bedford, Sowell Endowment Committee Member, as he shares his genealogical journey leading him to Nicodemus, Kansas. A PBS documentary will accompany Bedford’s talk. 

Photographs and historical documents in the film bring to life the story surrounding Nicodemus, the longest Black homesteader colony in America.

Sunday, May 4, 2025, 2 p.m.
Mystery and Benevolence Masonic and Odd Fellows Folk Art 

Taft Museum of Art, 316 Pike St., Cincinnati, OH 45202
Please RSVP for this program by emailing [email protected].

The Sowell Endowment Committee will have a docent-led tour of the exhibition. This exhibition features more than eighty works of art, including items once owned 

by the daughters of Rebekah and the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, founded as the first African American counterpart to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF).

Join the Donald P. Sowell Committee