The Baltimore Museum of Art examines the significant impact of a crucial period in American history through the perspectives and works of 12 renowned contemporary black artists through January 29, 2023.
Co-coordinated by The Baltimore Museum of Art and the Mississippi Museum of Art, the group exhibition “A Movement in Every Direction : Legacies of the Great Migration” features the work of artists Akea Brionne, Imprint Bradford, Zoë Charlton, Larry W. Cook, Torkwase Dyson, Theaster Doors Jr, Allison Janae Hamilton, Leslie Hewitt, Steffani Jemison, Robert Pruitt, Jamea Richmond-Edwards and Carrie Mae Weems.
Each of the scholars explored and reflected on their connections to the South, relocation, lineage, and the land, resulting in an unusual array of imaginative projects across media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, video, sound, and live installations.
The incomparable movement saw over 6 million black Americans leave their homes in the South for urban communities across the United States between 1915 and 1970. This movement of individuals changed virtually every aspect of Black life and gave rise to a thriving society that spawned another unit of artists, essayists, musicians and creators.
The group exhibition “A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration” places migration as a political outcome, but also as a decision of autonomy, as the works present testimonies of constancy, assurance, and confidence for those who left and for those who stayed to highlight a narrative of incomparable relocation in a narrative in progress nor completed in its contemporary setting.