 | |
| Vol. 18, No. 14 | Dec. 10, 1998 |
| |
| Vol. 18, No. 14 | Dec. 10, 1998 |
The University Gallery is literally taking its show on the road as the exhibit "Through These Eyes: The Photographs of P.H. Polk," which originated at UD in January, travels to eight other institutions as part of a two-year tour.
Celebrating the centennial of the birth of this important and influential African-American artist, the exhibit showcases the work of Prentice Herman Polk, who taught photography at Tuskegee Institute (now University) in Alabama, from 1928 to 1938. In 1933, he became the third chairperson of the photography department at this Southern school.
The exhibition has been fully booked for the next two years by a diverse number of cultural institutions including: the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham, Ala.; Iowa State University Museums, Ames, Iowa; the Atlanta History Center; the Carl Van Vechten Art Gallery at Fisk University in Nashville; the Anacostia Museum of the Smithsonian Institution; the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis; the Montogomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Ala.; and the Art Gallery of the University of West Florida, Pensacola.
A photographic essay of Polk's work and an excerpt from the gallery's exhibition catalogue will be included in an upcoming issue of the The Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP.
"The outreach value of this project continues to pay dividends for the University of Delaware," Belena Chapp, director of museums, said, adding that this is the first time an exhibit from UD has traveled extensively. A previous exhibit on the works of László Moholy-Nagy went to one other venue-the state of Illinois Art Gallery.
"Traveling exhibitions are extremely labor intensive and require constant monitoring during the period when the show is on the road. You need a myriad of organizational skills to do this and typically a much larger staff. That's one reason we haven't made this a regular practice," Chapp explained.
An exception was made for the Polk exhibit because of its wide cultural and historic appeal, she said.
"In working with the major collector, Paul R. Jones, and the Polk family, we made the commitment early on to travel this exhibition nationally. There was a consensus of opinion that the story of Polk, whose affiliation with Tuskegee enabled him to bear photographic witness to the influential African Americans who came through the institute in the 1930s-1960s, would strike a chord with a broad spectrum of viewers," Chapp said.
"Polk's images of George Washington Carver, and the breadth of his other photographic activities, from photographing middle class African Americans in his private studio to the poor, rural farmers in the Tuskegee community, illustrate the rich social history of these Americans.
His images present a balanced view of black Southern culture during this period, especially when compared to some of the stereotypical images of Southern blacks that came out of the photographic project of the FSA (Farm Security Administration) around the same time," she said.
-Beth Thomas
