The Harriet Tubman African American Museum located in Macon, Georgia

past exhibition

The History of Fort Valley State University

April 16 - June 26, 2010

On April 16, the Tubman Museum will open a special exhibition featuring the history and artifacts of Fort Valley State University. Born in 1895 as Fort Valley High and Industrial School, Fort Valley State University is one of three state-supported historically African-American universities in Georgia. This exhibition uses photographs, video, and historical artifacts to explore and celebrate the history and growth of this prestigious local educational institution. The exhibition chronicles the physical growth of the university campus, the development of its liberal arts curriculum, and its evolving positive impact on this community and this region.

The exhibition opening reception will be held on Friday, April 16th, 2010 from 6:00 - 8:00pm.

The History of Fort Valley State University will remain on view at the Tubman Museum through June 26, 2010.

Recent Acquisitions - By gift and purchase

As part of its educational mission, the Tubman Museum maintains a number of collections. These include traditional African art, African American Fine and Folk art, and artifacts that have to do with the history of African Americans in Macon and Middle Georgia. In the last few years, the Museum's collections have grown significantly. This exhibition highlights both the recent growth of the Tubman Museum's collections, as well as the generosity of its many supporters.

The Ceremony - Works by Kevin Sipp

On October 30, 2009 the Tubman Museum opened a special exhibition featuring the work of Atlanta-based multi-media artist Kevin Sipp. Kevin Sipp is currently the Curator at the Hammonds House Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to being a curator, writer and lecturer on contemporary and African American art, Sipp is also a successful exhibiting artist who regularly shows his work in museums and galleries across the country. In his work, Sipp explores and creates linkages between traditional cultural ideas and artifacts and contemporary technologies and the values they represent. The exhibit at the Tubman Museum was entilted The Ceremony. It featured a selection of Sipp's most recent works exhibited alongside pieces created over the last fifteen years. The Ceremony was the first exhibit in which the artist's major installation pieces will be on display in one space. The Ceremony was on view at the Tubman Museum through January 16, 2010.

Urban Chrysaliosis

The term urban chrysaliosis was coined by Michael Scoffield, the curator of this special exhibition. It describes a state of perpetual becoming. This exhibition brings together a group of nine artists, diverse in cultural background, style and artistic intent. What they have in common is the pressure and promise of life in the ever-expanding and evolving urban metropolis known as Atlanta, Georgia. Participating artists are Paul S. Benjamin, Pragati Chaudhry, Mark Karelson, Gerry King, Yun Liu, Morolake Odeleye, Michael Scoffield, Katherine Taylor, and Ron Witherspoon.

Wini McQueen - The History of the Dream Project

In 2000 the Tubman Museum commissioned textile artist Wini McQueen to produce a series of works of art to be installed in the rotunda of the Museum’s new facility in downtown Macon. The installation, entitled The History of the Dream, consists of more than 130 individual works of art that tell stories of the struggles and triumphs of a people and a community. This special exhibition features a selection of works from the project that pay homage to the individuals, institutions and organizations that have made a positive contribution to the quality of life in Macon, and who were instrumental in the founding and development of the Tubman Museum.

Recent Acquisitions: African Art from the Tubman Museum Collection

The Tubman African American Museum features a very special exhibition entitled Recent Acquisitions: African Art from the Tubman Museum Collection. This exhibition showcases some recent additions to the Museum's collection of traditional African art. The Museum maintains a collection of traditional African art, in particular West African traditional art. These objects have aesthetic value, and also represent cultural and aesthetic practices that have has an impact on the evolution of African American culture and history. Comprised of more than thirty artifacts and works of art, the exhibit features a selection of ceramics, masks, ceremonial and utilitarian objects.

Recent Acquisitions: African Art from the Tubman Museum Collection will remain on view at the Tubman Museum through April 11, 2009.

Wall Spirits, Compositions and Other Secrets, by Larry Walker

The Tubman African American Museum features a very special exhibition entitled Wall Spirits, Compositions and Other Secrets, with more than thirty paintings by the artist Larry Walker. A Georgia native, Larry Walker has successfully maintained a career as an exhibiting artist and educator for over forty years. Since his retirement from teaching in 2000, Walker has devoted his full attention to his own art making.

This exhibition features a selection of works from Walker’s ongoing Wall Series. This series of works began in the early 1980’s. While visiting his ailing mother in Harlem, New York, Walker was moved by the effects of poverty and urban blight affecting the neighborhood at that time. The resulting series has occupied the artist for more than twenty years. In it he focuses on urban surfaces (walls), covered with the varied remnants of past communications. These walls are a vehicle to explore and contemplate the change that seems to be a constant feature of the urban landscape, and of modern life as well. They also serve as an arena in which the artist contemplates the various ways people interact, connect and disconnect with each other over time. Commenting on the Wall Series, Walker states, “Overall, I believe that these paintings explore the complexities, elusiveness and challenges we face as humans while reflecting on many aspects of our shared existence in both positive and negative contexts.”

Larry Walker was born in Franklin, Georgia. He spent his formative years in New York City, where he attended the High School of Music and Art. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Art Education and a Masters degree in drawing and painting from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He taught at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, and in Atlanta at Georgia State University. At Georgia State he served as Director of the Art department for over eleven years, and retired from the university as professor emeritus in the Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design. Walker has had more than 43 solo exhibitions, a juried career of over 100 +, and he has been included in numerous invitational and curated exhibitions. In Atlanta, his work is represented by Mason Murer Fine Art. Walker currently lives and works in Lithonia, Georgia.

The Exhibition Opening Reception

On Sunday, November 16^th the Tubman Museum will host a very special event to celebrate this special artist and this special exhibition. Beginning at 3:00 P.M. Larry Walker will present a slide lecture on his career as an artist and the evolution of his imagery. The lecture will be followed by a reception in his honor. Admission to the lecture and reception is free for Museum Members, $5.00 for the General Public. Please RSVP by Wednesday, November 12^th.

Wall Spirits, Compositions and Other Secrets was on view at the Tubman Museum from October 31, 2008 - January 10, 2009. This exhibition and program were sponsored by:

On Friday, August 8, 2008 the Tubman African American Museum opened the 2008/2009 Calendar of exhibitions with a show that focused on the history and growth of Atlanta, Georgia, the city often called the "capital of the New South." Entitled Bud Smith: The Atlanta Series, 1968-2008, the exhibition featured more than eighty images that captured many of the important people and events in the city's growth over the last forty years.

Atlanta, Georgia is the birthplace of famed civ il rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Atlanta Series begins in the aftermath of the tragic, untimely death of King in 1968. From this solemn beginning, the exhibit goes on to chronicle the achievements of many of King’s contemporaries who contributed much to the social and political evolution of Atlanta, Georgia into a truly international city. Some of the well-known Atlanta leaders featured in the exhibit are Coretta Scott King, Maynard Jackson, Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy, Josea Williams, Joseph Lowery, John Lewis and Julian Bond, among others.Over the years the city’s physical landscape has undergone massive changes. The Atlanta Series focuses on that growth as well. Many well-known city landmarks (some no longer in existence) are featured, including the Omni, Westin Peachtree Plaza, the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Fulton County Stadium, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and the MARTA rail system.Sports and entertainment have always been an integral part of Atlanta city life. Diana Ross, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Tina Turner, Al Green, and James Brown are just some of the legendary performers caught in concert, and in candid moments off stage. The exhibit chronicles Hank Aaron’s historic 715th homerun, hit at Fulton County Stadium in front of his hometown Atlanta Braves fans, as well as all of the excitement, energy and crowds of international spectators that visited when Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympic Games.All of the photographs in The Atlanta Series were taken by Arthur “Bud” Smith. An Atlanta native, Smith began his career in 1964 as an apprentice to professional photographer, Ray Simon. In 1968, at the age of nineteen, Smith documented the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Drafted in 1969, Smith served two years in the Army. After military service, he returned to Atlanta in 1971, and his professional career began in earnest. Smith has worked for local newspapers The Atlanta World and The Atlanta Voice as well as national publications such as Ebony, Jet, Time, Black Enterprise and Life magazine. Early on, he worked for A&M and Motown Records, which gave him access to some of the most dynamic recording artists of the day. Over the course of his career he has done work for national corporations like Anheuser Busch, Exxon Mobil, Kraft Foods and the Southern Company. In addition, he has done work for philanthropic organizations, such as Big Brothers-Big Sisters of America and the United Negro College fund, as well as for local institutions like Spelman College, the National Black Arts Festival and the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. Smith describes his long and varied career as "a blessing” and as "a journey I’ll never forget.”Bud Smith: The Atlanta Series, 1968 – 2008 will remain on view at the Tubman Museum through October 18, 2008. There will be an opening reception on Friday, August 8, from 6:00 P.M. to 7:30 P.M. Admission to the reception is free for Museum Members and $5.00 for the General Public.

This exhibition and program were sponsored by:

Library of Congress Exhibition
Brown v. Board of Education
May 2, 2008 - July, 2008

Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” was pivotal to the struggle for racial desegregation in the United States. On May 2, 2008 a very special exhibition that explores the case and celebrates the legacy of the court’s historic decision opens at the Tubman African American Museum. Entitled, “With an Even Hand”: Brown v. Board at Fifty, the exhibition features more than 100 books, photographs, political cartoons, manuscripts, maps, music and films all from the comprehensive civil rights collection of the Library of Congress.

The title of the exhibition quotes Robert L. Carter, a counsel for the plaintiffs, in his oral arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States. Arguing against the constitutionality of racial segregation in public schools, he said, “It is our position that any legislative or governmental classification must fall with an even hand on all persons similarly situated.”

“With an Even Hand” is presented in three sections. Section One examines the court cases leading to the 1954 decision, including the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson case, which established the “separate but equal” doctrine in 1896. This section of the exhibition also explores pivotal events such as the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), whose legal arm launched the actions that culminated in the Brown v. Board of Education court cases.

Section Two examines the history of the Brown v. Board of Education case and reaction to the Supreme Court decision. Featured materials include a May 7, 1954 letter from Chief Justice Earl Warren to members of the court; a front page edition of the Russell Daily News, Russell, Kansas, May 17, 1954; photographs of Brown lawyers Harold P. Boulware, Thurgood Marshall, and Spottswood W. Robinson III, as well as George E.C. Hayes and James Nabrit.

Section Three follows the aftermath of the Brown decision and focuses on events such as the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, the desegregation of Little Rock High School and James Meredith’s entry into the University of Mississippi.

Funding for “With an Even Hand” has been made possible by AARP; Anthony and Beatrice Welters; and AmeriChoice, a UnitedHealth Group Company. This exhibition will remain on view at the Tubman Museum through July 27, 2008.

Bud Smith: The Atlanta Series
August 8, 2008 - October 18, 2008