The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center—with leadership from Mary-Kay Lombino, Deputy Director and Emily Hargroves Fisher ’57 and Richard B. Fisher Curator, and Amanda Potter, Putnam Assistant Director of Learning and Community Engagement—has secured a grant from Art Bridges to support Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection. This exhibition features works by an exceptional group of artists who have made significant contributions to the formation of Black history and culture. Dr. Liz Andrews, Executive Director of the Spelman College Art Museum, explains that these artists also represent “the work that has been put in by Spelman College to uplift artists even before there was a museum.” Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, the historically Black college for women began collecting in 1899 and the museum was established in 1996. Supporting Black women artists has long been central to the formation of the museum’s collection, and this history is apparent in Silver Linings.

The Vassar College community will benefit greatly from the presence of these artists in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center’s galleries. The Loeb looks to the Spelman Museum as a partner institution that is further along in terms of commitments to Black artists. The abundance of voices and perspectives that the curators brought together in Silver Linings challenges essentialized notions of Blackness and Black culture and promotes more inclusive art historical narratives. Silver Linings will encourage visitors to broaden their understanding of “Black art” as it has been defined in the United States and across the Black Diaspora. The exhibition will also support ongoing discussions on campus surrounding representations of race, gender, sexuality, and more.