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MAVUNO Exhibition: Tending Our Mothers' Gardens
Sweetwater Center for The Arts, 200 Broad St, Sewickley, PA | Get Directions »
FREE
Sweetwater is proud to present its 16th Annual MAVUNO Festival of African American Art & Culture.
MAVUNO, translated as "first fruit" in Swahili, will begin at the start of the Fall/Harvest season. From mid-September through early-November, the MAVUNO Festival features a wide range of performances, workshops, a visual art exhibition, and much more in celebration of the African American voice and vision of the region.
First Fruit XVI: Tending Our Mothers' Gardens
September 21 - November 2, 2012
Reception: Friday, September 28, 6:00-9:00 p.m.
*Featuring live music by Joy Ike from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
*The reception coincides with the Sewickley Fall Gallery Walk and includes complimentary wine, refreshments and light hors d'oeuvres.
*Village Garden Club will have interpretive arrangements on display in conjunction with the reception.
"Our Mothers' Gardens" is the title essay of a 1983 book by Alice Walker that also contains 35 other pieces that introduce her "Womanist" aesthetic. Now, nearly 30 years later, black women in the arts continue in that vein. "Our Mothers' Gardens" may be understood as a metaphor for the community of creativity that nourishes African American culture. In the longstanding African tradition of "taking a village to raise a child," generations of African American women artists have remained sensitive to their responsibility to tend the garden that will ensure their cultural survival.
This exhibition will present works by several African American women artists that demonstrate their awareness that they are the inheritors of a distinctive heritage and who are motivated to "pay it forward" in their artistic handiwork and ongoing engagement with their constituent communities. Much of the work will be of the installation genre, intended to make Sweetwater's Balcony Gallery a transformational experience for visitors. Featured artists include: Ann Tanksley, LaVerne Kemp, Charlotte Ka, Christine Bethea, Tina Brewer and Leslie Ansley.
The exhibition is curated by Elizabeth Asche Douglas, B.F.A., Painting & Design, Carnegie Mellon University; M.A., Art History & Criticism, University of Pittsburgh; additional study, University of Pennsylvania.
Sweetwater Center for the Arts
Free!
Event Details
| Where | Sweetwater Center for The Arts 200 Broad St, Sewickley, PA 15143 |
| Next on | This event is over. |
| Time | |
| Website | http://www.sweetwaterartcenter.org/mavuno-festival/ |
| Phone | 412-741-4405 |
| info@sweetwaterartcenter.org | |
| Price | $0 |
More About Sweetwater Center for The Arts
Sweetwater Center for the Arts provides arts education and cultural programming for Sewickley and surrounding communities. Sweetwater offers more than 400 art classes and workshops annually to children and adults in addition to summer camps for children and youth. There is a fee for most courses; however, scholarships are available to those demonstrating financial need. The center also presents live performances by some of Pittsburgh’s brightest musicians (Sweet Jazz Series in February; Summer Music Series in June) and art exhibitions in its Balcony Gallery open to the public for viewing free of charge. Every October and November, the center presents the MAVUNO Festival of African American Art & Culture, which includes performances, music, exhibitions and numerous other free events. Sweetwater's annual Holiday mART—a week-long sale of handcrafted gifts in a variety of media—begins right after Thanksgiving.
