Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art

Date and Time

• Fri, Sep 13, 2024 - Mon, Jan 6, 2025  

Location

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Details

The traveling exhibition Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art presents sixty-seven selected works from a body of art amassed over thirty-five years by an ordinary working-class couple. Often choosing artworks over material items and other creature comforts, Kerry, a retired mailman, and Betty, a former television news producer, have opted instead to live with drawings, paintings, prints, and sculpture as their principal luxuries.

While their stated intention to “preserve cultural memories and provide their community with a source of inspiration” are goals shared by most art enthusiasts, Kerry and Betty do not search exclusively for well-known and/or documented artists, keeping in mind “the importance of gathering and preserving a spectrum of approaches to the black image in order to console the psyche and contribute to a more authentic articulation of the self.” To this end, the Davises continue to be students of the visual arts through visits to galleries and museums and through their voracious reading of exhibition catalogues, artist monographs, books, and online data about artists, art genres, mediums, and history.

The Sordoni Art Gallery is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Tues. - Fri. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sat. and Sun. from noon to 5 p.m. The gallery is closed on Mondays and University holidays.