{"id":12299,"date":"2022-05-04T16:11:14","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T16:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=12299"},"modified":"2022-05-04T16:11:14","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T16:11:14","slug":"a-river-runs-through-it-the-mighty-ted-ellis-rolls-in-as-museum-director-at-southern-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=12299","title":{"rendered":"A River Runs Through It: The Mighty Ted Ellis Rolls in as Museum Director at Southern University"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

A River Runs Through It:<\/h1>\r\n

The Mighty Ted Ellis Rolls in as Museum Director at Southern University<\/h2>\r\n
by D. Amari Jackson<\/pre>\r\n
\u201cWe may sense that the river of black struggle is people, but it is also the hope, the movement, the transformative power that humans create and that create them, us, and makes them, us, new persons.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\r\n
–Vincent Harding<\/strong><\/p>\r\n
In his noted 1981 work, There Is A River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America<\/em>, author Vincent Harding applies the organizing metaphor of a river to the long and ongoing Black movement toward justice in America. A college professor, friend and advisor to Martin Luther King Jr., and the first director of the King Memorial Center in Atlanta, the late Harding used the natural flow of water to embody our progressive communal quest for equity, self-determination, and collective advancement.<\/p>\r\n
Harding\u2019s river certainly applies to the world of African American art. And it flows, rather, pulses <\/em>through the veins of renowned artist and educator, Ted Ellis.<\/p>\r\n
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Fruit Bearers by Ted Ellis 16×20 original 1995<\/p><\/div>\r\n
\u201cWe took the baton from our predecessors and said okay, we\u2019re going to define ourselves,\u201d says the 58-year-old Ellis of his generation of artists, stressing how \u201cit was forced upon these mainstream institutions to recognize African American artists. Certainly, Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, Samella Lewis, Lois Mailou Jones, and Margaret Burroughs were very intentional on fighting that fight and speaking to the importance of African American culture, and using art as a method of social engagement and social equity through images.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\u201cIf they\u2019re not gonna give us access to these institutions, then we\u2019re gonna find an alternative way, and we did that,\u201d acknowledges Ellis. \u201cWe did the darn thing.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Ellis\u2019s declaration is as singular as it is communal. For the past four decades, the popular self-taught artist and current Texas resident has produced a diverse and sizable body of work while specializing in the rich cultural heritage of African Americans. His works have been commissioned by major corporations including Disney, The Minute Maid Company, and Avon, featured in local and national media, and purchased and collected by the likes of Spike Lee and Brad Pitt. Ellis continues to share his success with his community through art workshops with children and related nonprofit programs for disadvantaged students.<\/p>\r\n
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He now has another way to do so. On May 2, 2022, Ellis was ushered in as the inaugural Museum Director for Southern University at New Orleans.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited to be doing this and pushing forward\u2014with a lot of intentionality, a lot of purpose\u2014who I am, my community, and my history,\u201d offers Ellis, explaining \u201cI get to make that ask for partnerships, for collaborations, on sharing what\u2019s important to those who have the same kind of interest that I have in celebrating culture and identity.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Although the position is new, Ellis\u2019s role, like a flowing river, is constant. \u201cWhen I was going through the museum studies program, there was a level of validation through the course work given this is what I\u2019ve been doing,\u201d explains Ellis, of the professional networking and audience engagement activities he participated in while receiving his Master of Arts in Museum Studies from Southern. \u201cI\u2019m doing corporate lunch and learns, engaging audiences and gaining trust, I\u2019m presenting cultural artifacts\u2014which is my art\u2014I\u2019m telling a story, it\u2019s enlightening them, it\u2019s appeasing their curiosity, they\u2019re learning, and I\u2019m uplifting human capital through my art. And I do it at outdoor festivals, I do it at corporate lunches, I do it at private home shows.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\r\n
Accordingly, Ellis soon recognized \u201cI am pretty much the subject matter expert in this\u201d and that \u201cI am the practical side of this theory it talks about. And so, intimately, this is what I’ve been doing, as well as others like me. We have been engaged in presenting and capturing these narratives that tell stories and are sharing it with people. We may do it in a sort of alternate space or in a way you do with commerce, but you\u2019re getting people to see something that they like, something that they value, and they\u2019re looking to participate.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s what museums do, you know?\u201d<\/p>\r\n
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Southern Pleasure by Ted Ellis 40×30 original 1993<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Though Ellis now resides in the Houston metropolitan area, the storied city of New Orleans, like a mighty river, courses through his veins. Growing up in the Louisiana city known for its culture, history, and rich African American heritage, Ellis was deeply inspired by the artistic and traditional values surrounding him. These elements, along with ongoing encouragement from his entrepreneurial-minded parents, prompted the young Ellis to blend aspects of realism and impressionism while depicting the vibrant people and scenes he encountered in his Lower Ninth Ward community. During high school, the scholarly student would commonly ride public transit to Jackson Square in the French Quarters to learn from artists as they engaged the public.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cWe went to the same high school and, as far as I can recall, Ted was the first student that they let paint a mural on one of the major walls in the school,\u201d remembers lifelong friend, Dale Johnson, whose mother taught with Ellis\u2019s mom at a local school when the two men were babies. The Dallas-based business owner details how his talented artistic friend would go on to receive a B.S. in Chemistry from Dillard University before becoming an environmental chemist. \u201cAs a chemist, he still did his art on the side,\u201d clarifies Johnson, noting Ellis\u2019s entrepreneurial spirit. \u201cSo, one day, I came to him with an idea to start a business together. And he told me, \u2018it\u2019s ironic you say that. I don\u2019t want to start a business with you because I am going to start doing art full time,\u2019 which was awesome. So he wants to give me credit,\u201d laughs Johnson, \u201cby saying I kind of pushed him out there to start his own business.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
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Free At Last by Ted Ellis 36×24 original 2006<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Like his artwork, Ellis went about his business with a passion, making connections, networking, and exhibiting at local and national fairs with his artistic peers. Over time, as he and his network of colleagues grew more successful, Ellis recognized that an important shift was occurring, like a river transporting eroded sediment and redepositing it in a different location to forge a new frontier.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cIt was remarkable, when I started looking at it,\u201d offers Ellis, pointing out this was \u201cthe first generation of African American artists that didn\u2019t have to take a job or didn\u2019t have to take a flight to Europe to sustain themselves. They could stay here in America and make it happen. And we were that group of artists that didn\u2019t need to have another profession or moonlight, for we could do it full time.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\u201cWe were also the driving force in bringing African American art to the forefront again,\u201d says Ellis, noting \u201cit just wasn\u2019t in an academic setting or quiet places that you had to get acknowledgement or distribution through, like major museums, we were doing it our own.\u201d Consistently, he acknowledges the pioneering work of Ernie Barnes on the primetime television series, Good Times<\/em>, and the art of Varnette Honeywood on the Cosby Show. <\/em>At the time, none of this activity, clarifies Ellis, was presented by major institutions like \u201cthe MET or MOMA. We were defining ourselves and you had a plethora of mom and pops distributing artists that were self-publishing\u201d and, in doing so, \u201cgetting a larger percentage or the lion share of revenues from their art. It was just a high moment for African American artists and for making an impact.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
For Ellis and many of his colleagues\u2014he points to the relevant careers of Larry Poncho Brown, \u00a0Charles Bibbs, and Brenda Joysmith, gallerists Keith Golden and Walter Shannon, and BAIA\u2019s Najee Dorsey\u2014the successful business of art further represents progress within the river\u2019s path, like the Nile\u2019s northward inundation of its fertile basin, depositing precious layers of silt. \u201cWe took it to the point to say, \u2018now we\u2019re gonna monetize this, we\u2019re gonna place value to our culture,\u201d stresses Ellis, acknowledging that \u201cwe did that, and we continue to do that. And as we continued to evolve, we recognized we needed to be on the programmatic side of it, we needed to have more curators inside these mainstream institutions. And we\u2019re gonna talk about equity, accessibility, and inclusion. So we\u2019re doing that now.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\u201cYou have artists that are six-figure, fast lane artists that are doing it, that are living,\u201d continues Ellis. \u201cTwenty years ago, I was saying this was going to happen, and it has. When you look at Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley, these are younger artists that are doing it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
That said, there were those, acknowledges Ellis, who \u201clooked at what we were doing and sometimes said that maybe we are a little bit too <\/em>entrepreneurial, and that there\u2019s no value in what we do. And I was on the opposite side of that argument because we\u2019re creating industry, we\u2019re monetizing culture, and it\u2019s no different than what the institutions do.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
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As Ellis\u2019s commercial success advanced, adding such high-profile clients as Disney, Minute Maid, Coca-Cola, State Farm Insurance, and Avon, so did his education. Twenty years after receiving his B.S. in Chemistry from Dillard, Ellis received his Master of Arts in Museum Studies from Southern. And with his new position, the accomplished artist is ever looking for additional ways to keep the river rolling.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cI want to get all of my contemporaries who are living their due,\u201d stresses Ellis. \u201cYou\u2019ve got artists out here who, for 20 and 30-plus years, have been doing great work that should get the proper recognition and historical documentation for their volume of work and their capacity to tell and preserve our stories. There\u2019s always those artists who get rediscovered, but I want to be able to promote, in my own kind of way, my brethren and sisters who give their effort and purpose to telling our story with a lot of beauty, a lot of passion, and a lot of intentionality.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
So, adds Ellis, \u201cI see that happening with this opportunity. And that\u2019s gonna be a high mark because it steps outside of self in service to others.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
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AMARI JACKSON\u00a0<\/b>is a creator, author, TV\/web\/film producer, and award-winning journalist. He is author of the 2011 novel,\u00a0The Savion Sequence<\/i>; creator\/writer\/coproducer of the 2012-2014 web series\u00a0The Book Look<\/i>; writer\/coproducer of the 2016 film\u00a0Edge of the Pier<\/i>; and current writer\/coproducer of\u00a0Listen Up!<\/i>\u00a0on HBCU GO\/Roku TV. He is a former Chief of Staff for a NJ State Senator; a former VP of Communications & Development for the Jamestown Project at Harvard University; and a recipient of several writing fellowships including the George Washington Williams Fellowship from the Independent Press Association. An active ghost writer, song writer, martial artist, and journalist, his writings have appeared in a wide variety of national and regional publications.<\/p>\r\n
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