The I, Too, Sing America Exhibition
By Hailey Stangebye
Yesterday, the highly anticipated I, Too, Sing America exhibition opened at the Columbus Museum of Art. It represents years of careful curation and collaboration.
Moreover, this exhibition was the catalyst for the broader discussion that led to this citywide celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance in Columbus. It all started a few years ago at the Lincoln Theatre. Wil Haygood was in town hosting a discussion on the release of his most recent publication, Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America.
Larry James introduced Haygood and, in the audience, the director of the Columbus Museum of Art, Nannette Maciejunes, listened attentively.
“I realized that so much of what Wil had done in his writing kept circling back and touching on the Harlem Renaissance,” Nannette says. “I got the idea that maybe we could invite Wil to be the guest curator of an exhibition here at the museum on the Harlem Renaissance as it approached its hundredth birthday.”
“I got the idea that maybe we could invite Wil to be the guest curator of an exhibition here at the museum on the Harlem Renaissance as it approached its hundredth birthday.”
Luckily, the next morning, Nannette had breakfast with the late Bill Conner, who was, at the time, the director at CAPA. She pitched the idea and Bill immediately pulled out his phone to call Larry James.
Within a week, Larry James, Bill Conner and Wil Haygood were all on board.
“The second thing that happened that I think was really important was an idea that Bill Conner and Larry James had from the beginning, and then Larry carried it to fruition after Bill’s death,” Nannette says. “It was this idea of turning this small idea that Nannette had about an exhibition at the museum into a citywide celebration with 30 plus partners. And I think that has made it so much bigger than it would have been had it just been a show at the museum.”
“It was this idea of turning this small idea that Nannette had about an exhibition at the museum into a citywide celebration with 30 plus partners. And I think that has made it so much bigger than it would have been had it just been a show at the museum.”
The citywide celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance quickly became more than a commemoration of the history of the movement. While this rich history is a crucial component, it also became a living, breathing platform for modern expression that will continue to shape the culture in Columbus.
The museum exhibition reflects that nuanced vitality. It’s about the history of the Harlem Renaissance, but it’s also about the ripple effect that the movement had on American culture.
“We do lots of different kinds of exhibitions,” Nannette says. “What’s distinctive about this one is that it’s a very personal reflection on the Harlem Renaissance. It is about a writer and a thinker who has spent much of his career thinking about how this subject of the Harlem Renaissance intersects with other things that he’s working on. It’s a lifetime of that thinking and that personal reflection on the meaning of the Harlem Renaissance to him in the 21st century that really distinguishes this exhibition.”
“It’s a lifetime of that thinking and that personal reflection on the meaning of the Harlem Renaissance to him in the 21st century that really distinguishes this exhibition.”
The I, Too, Sing America exhibition will be on view through January 20, 2019. With the rich layers of artistic expression around every corner, you could spend multiple visits exploring all that this show has to offer. Nannette says that this exhibit — and art in general — is much more than a luxury.
“I think that the arts are the best of us,” Nannette says. “We throw that phrase of ‘quality of life’ around. Art is so much more than the quality of life. It’s fundamental to life… You take one breath, and you begin to get art. We are aesthetic beings that make things that have to be beautiful, that have to communicate, that have to have meaning. That’s the essence of human life. It’s the essence of being human.”
“We throw that phrase of ‘quality of life’ around. Art is so much more than the quality of life. It’s fundamental to life… You take one breath, and you begin to get art. We are aesthetic beings that make things that have to be beautiful, that have to communicate, that have to have meaning. That’s the essence of human life. It’s the essence of being human.”
For more information on when you can experience the exhibition for yourself, click here.
