[UPDATE Feb. 6, 2018: This event is over, but if you missed it you can watch the full video posted on YouTube by the WGBH Forum Network.]
Right now at the PRX Podcast Garage in Allston, MA, there's a compelling exhibit of sculptures, masks, and collage-based works by award-winning artists Vusumuzi “Vuzi” Maduna and Ekua Holmes. The pieces explore ancestral voices, family histories, and the power of hope, faith and self-determination.
On Tuesday, January 23, The Garage will hold a reception celebrating the exhibit called Keepers of the Culture: A Celebration of Vusumuzi Maduna and Ekua Holmes. And during the event Hub & Spoke's own Tamar Avishai, creator and host of The Lonely Palette, will interview Holmes about her art.
The event is free and open to the public, and food and drinks will be provided. We hope to see you there! Please reserve a ticket here.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Born in Cambridge, sculptor/painter Vusumuzi Maduna (1940 - 2007) spent much of his life as an artist resident of the Gallery at the Piano Factory in Boston. Maduna began his exploration of African culture with a study of African religions which led him to further examine and interpret the traditional embodiment of belief and myth. Educated at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, he was a member of the African American Master Artists in Residency Program of Northeastern University. His work has been exhibited in the MFA and the ICA, as well as in Tokyo and the People’s Republic of China. Yet Maduna returned to the neighborhoods of his childhood to create pieces that remind us of the African heritage that many in the community share. His public installations are located in Cambridge (the Margaret Fuller House, the Cambridge Community Center, The King School) and in the Boston area, including The Judge, in Roxbury.
Ekua Holmes received her BFA in Photography from MassArt in 1977. Remembering a Roxbury childhood of wonder and delight, supported by a nurturing Black community, she considers herself a part of a long continuum of imagemakers. She has created and led workshops, been a visiting artist and lecturer, and held artist residencies in public and private institutions throughout New England. Ms. Holmes currently serves as Commissioner and Vice Chair of the Boston Art Commission, which oversees the placement and maintenance of public works of art on and in city of Boston properties. She is also the Assistant Director in the Center for Art and Community Partnerships at MassArt where she manages and coordinates sparc! the ArtMobile, an art-inspiring, art-transforming vehicle retrofitted to contribute to community based, multidisciplinary arts programming currently focused in the Boston neighborhoods of Mission Hill and Roxbury and Dorchester, MA.
ABOUT TAMAR AVISHAI
Tamar is a Somerville-based art historian and independent radio producer. In the year since The Lonely Palette launched, it's been written-up in WIRED, Paste, and aired on PRX, the CBC, and NPR. She is an adjunct lecturer at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and picks a banjo in her spare time.