Amistad Foundation Exhibition At Wadsworth Atheneum

HARTFORD — From antebellum days to abolition and through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans have performed countless acts of courage and creativity.

A new exhibition from The Amistad Foundation, “Following The North Star: From Civil War To Civil Rights,” opening June 11 at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, recalls some lesser-known events and personalities as well as those often celebrated and commemorated.

Among them are the 1859 raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, W.Va., and Robert Small, a slave who led a daring escape of his family and was later elected to Congress, representing South Carolina during Reconstruction.

“Following The North Star” also offers a fresh perspective on The Underground Railroad, its passengers who followed the North Star to freedom, and its chief engineer, Harriet Tubman. It explores the reality of resistance by enslaved Africans who were firm in their conviction that “slave” was their condition, not their name.

Additionally, selections from the foundation’s collection of photographs and contemporary works celebrate the courageous acts, accomplishments and creative genius of African-Americans during the mid-20th Century.

The exhibition offers fresh interpretations of the African American struggle out of enslavement and toward equal rights, which is documented and interpreted in paintings, sculpture, photographs, posters and contemporary published accounts culled from The Amistad Foundation’s collection of art, artifacts and ephemera. A guide will help visitors gain a deeper understanding of the objects on view.

The exhibit will be on view until May 21, 2006.

At the same time, the museum will celebrate the return of some familiar friends to the walls of the Bank of Amerca Gallery of African-American Art. “Reflecting and Reconnecting: The African-American Collection” will be on view June 11 to May 21.

After months of absence due to window repair, visitors will once again be able to bask in the grace and royalty of “She-ba,” one of the most recognizable works by Romare Bearden. The beauty and complexity of the collage, executed at the height of Bearden’s career, clearly illustrate why he is one of the most admired and accomplished American artists of the 20th Century.

Visitors will also see Howardena Pindell’s hauntingly perceptive depiction of a conflicted African-American woman in “Autobiography: Ancestors/Middle Passage/Family Ghost.” Museum guests can prepare to reconnect, reflect and enjoy these works and many others in the newly repaired, renamed and reinstalled gallery.

The museum, at 600 Main Street, is open Wednesday through Friday, 11 am to 5 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm; and the first Thursday of every month until 8 pm. Admission is $10.

For information, visit www.WadsworthAtheneum.org or call 860-278-2670.