A Culture Moves a Country

During the Great Migration between 1915 and 1970, more than six million African Americans left the southern United States and moved throughout the United States. The widespread dispersal of people across the country, especially into cities, changed the economic, cultural, social, political, and environmental structure of the country. Black culture flourished, producing new artists, writers, and musicians.

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) turns its attention to this historical phenomenon beginning October 30. A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration explores the ways in which the Great Migration continues to resonate today.

Co-curators Jessica Bell Brown, curator and director of contemporary art at the BMA, and Ryan N. Dennis, chief curator and artistic director of the Center for Art & Public Exchange (CAPE) at the Mississippi Museum of Art, believe the story of the Great Migration is neither fully told nor complete, and let it unfold in the present. To that end, they commissioned works from 12 Black artists to be presented as part of the exhibition. These are Akea Brionne, Mark Bradford, Zoë Charlton, Larry W. Cook, Torkwase Dyson, Theaster Gates Jr, Allison Janae Hamilton, Leslie Hewitt, Steffani Jemison, Robert Pruitt, Jamea Richmond-Edwards and Carrie Mae Weems. They all have a very personal relationship to the Great Migration and, on the occasion of the commissions, explored and reflected on their connections to the South, to migration, to ancestors, and to the land. The result is an extraordinary range of artistic works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, video, sound, and immersive installations. The Baltimore Museum of Art has co-organized A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration with the Mississippi Museum of Art, where the exhibition was previously on view in April. It is sponsored by the Ford Foundation. It will be on view through January 29.