Reginald L. Jackson, Things Go Better?, c. 1970. Gelatin silver print. Dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist. © Reginald L. Jackson
The ICA is closed from Dec 30 through Jan 6.
The first and only in-residence program for Black artists in the United States, the African American Master Artist-in-Residence Program (AAMARP) was founded at Northeastern University in 1977 by influential artist and educator Dana C. Chandler, Jr. For nearly fifty years, AAMARP has been a vital outgrowth of the Black Arts Movement in Boston with a mission to afford a “living focus” on “the diverse dynamics of African American aesthetics” by providing studio spaces for artists, presenting numerous exhibitions, and serving as a meaningful meeting place. Several generations of artists working at AAMARP and its orbit have made artworks in a diversity of media, from large-scale paintings and assemblage-based sculptures to textile-based works and photography, often oriented to themes of social justice. Today, the program, still supported by Northeastern University, functions as an artist collective of 14 intergenerational artists—several of them long-term residents—whose works reflect an array of approaches to the art of Africa and the African diaspora. This exhibition presents artists and artworks affiliated with AAMARP and archival materials presented with the same “eye towards a diversity of visual arts disciplines and aesthetics” espoused in its founding to contextualize the program’s extraordinary legacy and its continued relevance today. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue surveying the program’s meaningful history.