Spencer Museum of Art

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Aaron Douglas Mural Project
August | September | October 2007

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In conjunction with the exhibition Aaron Douglas: African-American Modernist, the Spencer Museum of Art has commissioned an original public mural inspired by Douglas' vision and the rich interconnected history of other well known African-American artists with ties to Kansas. This community-based project will be directed by nationally recognized muralist Dave Loewenstein, and will involve students and Lawrence citizens directly in the process of creating the mural. The completed artwork will celebrate the important, but often overlooked, contribution that Kansas artists had in one of our country's greatest art movements, the Harlem Renaissance. In addition, the mural will explore the metaphorical relationship between the way these artists, who grew in Kansas, blossomed in big cities, with the various forms of pollination that insects and birds facilitate in our region. The location of the mural at the Lawrence Saturday Farmers Market inspired this connection between the pollination of flowers and the kind of pollinating these artists did when they brought their talents to new horizons.