“Folding Time” leads RU Art Gallery & Museum’s yearlong celebration of African American art

Nationally celebrated photographer and historian Wendel White leads a yearlong celebration of African American artists and their work with “Folding Time,” a thought-provoking collection of images at the Rowan University Art Gallery and Museum, 301 W. High Street in Glassboro.

Running through Oct. 26, the exhibition presents an array of photos and collages created to challenge viewers to not just remember key moments in American history but to think about the ways in which society forgot about them and, often, literally covered them up.

Spanning three gallery walls, the exhibition includes part of a series dubbed “Schools for Colored” featuring 42 images of formerly segregated schools, including some in New Jersey.

In addition to “Schools for Colored,” the exhibition includes selections from White’s series “Red Summer” and “Manifest,” both of which represent important, difficult, often heartbreaking moments in American history.

Included are images of a southern New Jersey woman’s Ku Klux Klan hood; melted stained glass from the May 11, 1963 bombing of the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four girls; and a photo of a scull simply marked “Negro” from Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum.

“Red Summer” is a series of collages in which White contrasts news articles about incidents from 1917 to 1923 with photos of the sites of those incidents today. One such collage shows a 1917 news story declaring “250 Negroes killed by infuriated race rioters” above an image of an unmarked parking lot in St. Louis that paved over the place where the incident occurred.

“What he’s doing is bringing the past forward and reminding us of these histories,” said Gallery Director and Chief Curator Mary Salvante.

Following White’s exhibition will be three more shows this year of primarily Black artists’ work.

Big season ahead

Upcoming shows include “Prima Materia,” which features the work of one African American artist, one Mexican American artist, and one Columbian American artist that runs from Nov. 7 through Jan. 4; “Carrying On: Black Panther Party artists continue the legacy,” that runs from Jan. 21 through March 15; and “Lavett Ballard: The People Who Could Fly,” March 24 to May 10.

Ballard’s exhibition will feature new works representing and retelling stories in African folklore from a Black woman's perspective.

“This is a season featuring stories of African American culture through different lenses,” Salvante said. “The Black community and Black culture are not monoliths. The people within it have different perspectives and different stories to tell.”

For more information, visit: https://sites.rowan.edu/artgallery/.