Ellen Powell Tiberino Memorial Museum of Contemporary Art

One of BAIA Foundation’s 2022 initiatives is instituting marketing assistance for African American Museums and Cultural Centers.

Ellen Powell Tiberino, also known as Philly’s “premier African-American woman artist,” earned her title by infusing African spirit with figurative tradition in her artwork. Tiberino honored and uplifted womanhood and life and history for Black folk in America, particularly that of young girls, pregnant women and motherhood, as well as African-American experiences that are just as hard to look at as they are to live through.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Ellen Powell Tiberino attended and graduated from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, becoming the second Black woman to receive a Cresson Traveling Scholarship, which she used to travel to Europe. Upon returning, Tiberino lived in New York for six years, where her work was also well-known. After her passing in 1992, following a fourteen-year battle with cancer, her home in Powelton Village in Philadelphia became the Ellen Powell Tiberino Memorial Museum of Contemporary Art.

Her home and extended courtyard features her artwork and sculptures as well as artwork from her friends and family members. Tiberino’s husband, Joseph—also a renowned artist—expressed their desire to showcase other artists’ talents: “We want to show other artists’ work, too, in special exhibitions. And we also want to establish a permanent collection of work by Ellen’s contemporaries.”

The Ellen Powell Tiberino Memorial Museum of Contemporary Art honors and celebrates the life and career of Ellen Powell Tiberino with courtyard murals and sculptures and encourages artistic awareness through her unique methods of capturing African American history and experiences. According to their website, “Three-dimensional murals, sculptures, and large-scale paintings ripe with elongated limbs, exaggerated glances, and sociopolitical and religious references are on display throughout the complex’s five buildings. Outside, nine lush city plots make up the grounds of the sculpture garden.”

Tiberino’s work can also be viewed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Ellen Powell Tiberino Memorial Museum of Contemporary Art is open to visitors by appointment only.

Learn more about the Ellen Powell Tiberino Memorial Museum of Contemporary Art.

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