Connect, Collaborate and Create: The Art of Archibald Motley

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Tonight: Cecil McDonald, Jr.!

Join us for a reading by authors Eric Charles May and Toya Wolfe this Thursday from 6-7pm. They will share connections from their own creative writing as well as that as Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes!

Be sure to RSVP for this Sunday!
http://rebuild-foundation.squarespace.com/upcoming-programs/

On Sunday from 4-6--join us at the Black Cinema House (7200 S. Kimbark) where film scholar Romi Crawford will foster connections between the light, color and sounds found in Motley's work with the La R***e des R***es featuring Josephine Baker dancing the Charleston and St. Louis Blues with Bessie Smith singing the popular W.C. Handy song, “St. Louis Blues."

Can't wait to welcome Marquis Hill's Blacktet to the Cultural Center this Thursday! Don't miss this concert from 6-7--the last of the Archibald Motley and Chicago's Sound Palette series.

This Thursday, June 18th from 6-7pm, we continue our Chicago Authors and Artists respond with Faheem Majeed!

This Thursday, June 11th from 6-7pm, join us for a FREE concert with the Victor Garcia Quartet at the Chicago Cultural Center! DanTrudell-organ, Rocky Yera-tenor sax, Charles Heath-drums, and Victor Garcia-trumpet.

Columbia College Chicago and the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs are thrilled to partner with Black Cinema House and the Chicago Film Archive to bring forward this opportunity! Special thanks to Dr. Romi Crawford for curating such a insightful series!

So many ways to engage the exhibition Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist while it is here in Chicago. More to come!

Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist is showing March 7-August 31, 2015, at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., Chicago.

The ground-breaking exhibition Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist created an opportunity for Columbia College Chicago and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events to collaborate. Faculty member Amy Mooney, a scholar on Motley’s work, has connected faculty, staff and students to this artist’s work, curating a dynamic series of citywide programs that will unfold over the course of the exhibition. This site provides updates on the latest performances as well as curricular materials developed to support investigation of this innovative artist.

The themes of Motley’s work—identity, migration and social change—continue to resonate with contemporary audiences. From spoken word to jazz choreography, we will engage the historic context of Motley’s era, paying tribute to the artist’s unique vision. Following our college’s mission of embracing cultural diversity and civic engagement, we will teach, tap and collaborate with partners across the city to bring forth new work that connects the past with the present, providing inspiration for the future.

The exhibition Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist includes 42 oil paintings by this modern master, ranging from hyper-realistic portraits to vibrant street scenes in Chicago, Paris and towns in Mexico. Archibald Motley (1891-1981) was one of the first African-American artists to graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and achieve international acclaim. Focusing on African-American subjects, Motley’s paintings reflect an era of change, from the Great Migration to the Chicago Renaissance to the seeding of the Civil Rights Movement. His unflinching investigations of race, class and gender remain relevant and inspiring. Like his contemporaries across the disciplines of literature and music, Motley imaginatively experimented with the formal qualities of his craft, imbuing his canvases with intense chroma, exaggerative gestures, and rhythmic compositions.

Curated by Dr. Richard Powell and originating at the Nasher Museum at Duke University, the exhibition has traveled to the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. After its installation at the Chicago Cultural Center, the exhibition will end its tour as one of the inaugural shows for the new Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.