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Black Art Library Pop-Up
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About This Exhibition
The Black Art Library began when Asmaa Walton observed a conspicuous gap in the mainstream narration of art history: museums, libraries, and curricula alike had a long way to go in terms of telling the fullest possible story around Black art and artists. Determined to meet this need Walton began amassing a collection of literary works by and about Black visual artists in February 2020. Walton envisions the growing collection to be an educational resource to share knowledge about Black visual art, expanding public engagement with Black artists' diverse histories, interests, and practices.
The Black Art Library is a collection centered on Black art and visual culture, intended to become a public-facing archive, facilitating community access to niche publications, exhibition catalogues, theoretical texts, and rare research materials alike. The books that populate the library are sourced from a variety of online sales and donors.
Black Art Library is a collection of books and other art history ephemera on Black visual art intended to be an educational resource to share within the Black community and beyond. We intend to introduce or expand the community's knowledge of Black art from the past and the present through art books.
Asmaa Walton, Creating Spaces for Supplemental Art Education Underserved, Emerging Conversations
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About The Founder
Asmaa Walton is a Detroit native and an arts educator. Walton completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Education from Michigan State University in 2017. Upon earning a Master of Arts in Art Politics from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, in 2018, Walton joined Toledo Museum of Art as an Education and Engagement Intern. In the same year she was appointed the Museum's first KeyBank Fellow in Diversity Leadership.
In 2019, Walton was appointed Romare Bearden graduate Museum Fellow at Saint Louis Art Museum. In February 2020 Walton established Black Art Library which is a collection of publications, exhibition catalogues and theoretical texts about Black art and visual culture intended to become a public archive in a permanent space in Detroit.
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