{"id":11656,"date":"2022-02-19T17:08:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T17:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=11656"},"modified":"2022-02-19T17:08:00","modified_gmt":"2022-02-19T17:08:00","slug":"james-e-lewis-museum-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=11656","title":{"rendered":"James E. Lewis Museum of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

James E. Lewis Museum of Art<\/h2>\r\n
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One of BAIA Foundation’s 2022 initiatives is instituting\u00a0marketing assistance for African American Museums and Cultural Centers.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

James E. Lewis was born in 1923 in Virginia to parents whose careers were limited to sharecropping. His father moved the family to Baltimore for what he’d hoped to be a better life. Lewis attended the only high school in the city that accepted Black students and was introduced to the arts by a faculty member there. By the time he was 19, he had created five portrait busts.<\/p>\r\n

He continued creating throughout his college career then began collecting art as well. He joined Morgan State University, Maryland’s largest HBCU, founded two years after slavery was outlawed, to chair the art department.\u00a0According to The Baltimore Sun<\/em>, “Mr. Lewis encouraged everyone to collect sculptures and paintings. He wanted society to appreciate artists, especially African-American artists, whom he feared history would ignore.”<\/p>\r\n

In 1951, James E. Lewis established the Gallery of Art at Morgan.\u00a0His mission was to develop collections and curricula at Morgan State in an era where Black people had little to no access to the Fine Arts. By the time he retired in 1986, he had amassed one of the most comprehensive art collections on the East Coast.\u00a0He’d buy his students’ work too. What better way to convince young people that, as we say here at BAIA, “art dreams do come true,” than by actually purchasing and sharing their work?\u00a0In 1990, four years after Lewis’s retirement, the museum was renamed for him.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

The James E. Lewis Museum of Art (JELMA) <\/strong>is the cultural extension of Morgan State University’s Fine Arts academic program. Developed to enhance the scholastic experience of the University’s student population and the community’s exposure to works of art, JELMA provides opportunities to experience exhibitions, programs and lectures.<\/p>\r\n

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https:\/\/www.jelmamuseum.org\/<\/p><\/div>\r\n

JELMA also plans to develop art outreach programs to grade school students and provide a forum of local, undiscovered talent. Moreover, the Museum will expand the breadth of its presentations and its activities as a collection and lending agency, to service galleries on a worldwide scale. To facilitate the anticipated growth in its artistic and cultural offerings, the Museum will enhance and expand its gallery administration program.<\/p>\r\n

Like Black Art in America, JELMA understands how important it is for everyone to have access to the Fine Arts. So they work with local and global communities to ensure that accessibility is present for students on campus but also for the entire Baltimore community, which is more than 60% Black. (They also now carry copies of BAIA, the Mag.)\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

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James E. Lewis, prominent Baltimore artist and longtime chairman of the art department at Morgan State University (Courtesy of Morgan State)<\/p><\/div>\r\n

The JELMA collection<\/strong><\/a> includes all cultures, genres and media. Highlighting African American, Asian, European and Oceanic art, the work presented comprises abstraction, sculpture, photography, painting, collage, drawing and more.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Current exhibitions include:<\/h2>\r\n
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https:\/\/www.jelmamuseum.org\/events<\/p><\/div>\r\n