Museum headlines
Alma Thomas, Iris, Tulips, Jonquils, and
Crocuses (1969)
May's Art in America devotes 10 pages to the Alma Thomas show at Skidmore's Tang Teaching Museum. Alma
Thomas (1891–1978) was known in her time for being the first African-American woman
to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum, but today she isn't widely known.
The Tang's show aims to change that, making "the case for a thorough examination of
her art and her place in history," as Art in America puts it.
The review calls Thomas's paintings "beautiful, optimistic, clear, and, almost more
than anything, fresh." Alma Thomas, co-curated with the Studio Museum in Harlem, is
on view at the Tang through June 5 and then travels to the Studio, where it will open
July 14.
Among other recent national recognition for the Tang—from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Elle, and New York Observer to Artsy, Culture Type, and Black Artist News:
- Art News covered the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's grant of $840,000 toward a three-year,
$1.2 million initiative for new curricula on diversity issues in art and the art world;
research on works in the Tang's collection by artists of like Nayland Blake, Willie
Cole, Lorna Simpson, Kara Walker, and Carrie Mae Weems; visiting artists and scholars;
and a digital archive. Inside Philanthropy said it's about expanding to new audiences and "the Tang seems well on its way."
- The New York Times reported on the three-year, $222,500 grant from the Teagle Foundation to help the
Tang lead a collaboration with Colgate, Hamilton, and the University at Albany. Skidmore
art historian Mimi Hellman will lead staff and faculty at each institution in developing
curricula to explore ways of learning with museum exhibitions.
- In its coverage of the new San Francisco MoMA, the New York Times sought comments from the Tang's Dayton Director Ian Berry, who called the museum "a great achievement."
