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November Issue 2007
Penn Center on St. Helena Island, SC, Presents Works from Bank Of America Collection
Selections from the Hewitt Collection of African-American Art will be on view in the York W. Bailey Museum at the historic Penn Center, located on St. Helena Island, near Beaufort, SC, from Nov. 8 through Dec. 14, 2007. Recognized as one of the most significant collections of African-American art of the century, the exhibition will feature works by such renowned artists as Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Ernest Crichlow, James Denmark, Eugene Grigsby and Jonathan Green.
"Presenting Selections from the Hewitt
Collection at the Penn Center is a special collaboration between
the center and Bank of America," said Kim Wilkerson, South
Carolina President, Bank of America. "Bank of America is
pleased to lend pieces and exhibitions from its corporate art
collection to cultural institutions and organizations, like the
Penn Center, across the country. Enhancing public access to these
prized works of art is a key component of our arts and culture
platform."
Jonathan Green
The exhibition is particularly meaningful in light of the close connection between the center and some of the artists in the collection - James Denmark and Jonathan Green. Denmark is one of South Carolina's important artists and served on the board of the Penn Center. Artist Jonathan Green grew up in a neighboring community to the center.
"Penn Center is proud to bring this prestigious collection of art work by highly acclaimed African American artists to the people of South Carolina and surrounding areas. Showing such a remarkable collection of art at a cultural center, like Penn, helps us to fulfill an important goal of reaching an underserved minority community through the arts. This exhibition is also especially important for our community because of our local ties with two artists, Jonathan Green and James Denmark," said Bernie L. Wright, Executive Director of Penn Center.
"So many people, through the generosity of Bank of America, will now have the opportunity to learn about and appreciate the outstanding contributions of some of the greatest African-American artists, many of whom have become our friends," said Vivian Hewitt, who shared a life-long passion for collecting art with her late husband, John.
Regarded as one of the most important and comprehensive assemblages of African-American art, the Hewitt Collection has received numerous accolades over the years.
Earlier this year, Bank of America announced a $100,000 gift to the Penn Center to increase the Center's capacity to provide educational and cultural programming, continue to preserve the Gullah culture and meet today's needs of the Beaufort and surrounding communities.
Penn Center is one of the nation's most historically significant African-American educational and cultural institutions. It is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization funded through grants and donations only. Begun in 1862 as Penn School, an experimental program to educate Sea Island slaves freed at the beginning of the Civil War, it is the oldest and most persistent survivor of the Port Royal Experiment. The first principals were Northern missionaries Laura Towne and Ellen Murray. Both spent the next forty years of their lives living among and educating former Sea Island slaves, the Gullah people of the South Carolina Lowcountry.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference staff met at Penn Center annually, between 1963 and 1967 for retreats, strategic planning and training sessions for the Civil Rights movement. The center has served as a model on an international basis for community development, citizenship, education, voting rights, daycare, cooperatives and business development. In the late 1960's Penn Center conducted leadership training programs for prospective government leaders in the southeastern regional states. The Peace Corps trained its volunteers in agricultural skills at Penn Center during the 1970's and 1980's.
For more information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Center at 843/838-2432 or visit (www.penncenter.com).
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