The David C. Driskell Center Archives Research Fellowship Program
July 10, 2023
Now accepting proposals from emerging scholars to participate in a fellowship program conducting research in previously undiscovered collections.
About the Award
Research Fellowships will take place between September 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024. Fellows will be required to attend meetings/do on-site research at the Driskell Center October 24 -27, 2023, and February 27-28, 2024, and present their work at a symposium to be held at the Center on Saturday, April 20, 2024. The awardee will receive a stipend of $3,000, as well as travel expenses for required meetings/research trips and the symposium. At the end of the program, the resulting papers written by Fellows will also be published in a collection edited by the Driskell Center.
About the Program
The David C. Driskell Center Archives Research Fellowship program is an opportunity for 4-5 early career professionals or graduate students to undertake original research with previously undiscovered, partially processed collections within the David C. Driskell Center Archives. During the fellowship year, fellows will have unprecedented access to the recently acquired Hayes-Benjamin Papers on African American Art and Artists, the Michael D. Harris Collection, and the Alonzo Davis Collection. Research Fellows will benefit from the opportunity to interact with their peers, to learn from one another’s process and to share their research in process. Research Fellows will participate in meetings and research trips in College Park, MD and the surrounding D.C. metro area throughout the academic year, resulting in a paper as well as a presentation to be given during a conference at the David C. Driskell Center in Spring of 2024.
Collections Overview
The Hayes-Benjamin Papers on African American Art and Artists
Tritobia Hayes Benjamin was a historian and professor of African American art. As a scholar, curator, and arts community member, her contributions to the field and influence on artists and the art scene, especially in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area were numerous. In 1993, Benjamin was made full professor and later became Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Director of the Howard University Gallery of Art. Benjamin eventually returned to the classroom as a student as well, earning her Ph.D. in American art history with a concentration in African -American Art from the University of Maryland in 1991, where David C. Driskell was her dissertation advisor. Her dissertation, entitled “The Life and Art of Lois Mailou Jones, American Artist” was the basis for “The Life and Art of Lois Mailou Jones,” now considered the definitive monograph of the artist.
Compiled and organized by scholar, educator, curator, and arts community member Dr. Tritobia Hayes Benjamin (1944 - 2014) over the course of her career, The Hayes-Benjamin Papers on African American art and Artists document African American art history in the latter half of the twentieth century as well as Dr. Hayes Benjamin’s personal life. The Hayes Benjamin Papers collection measures approximately seventy-five linear feet and dates from 1928 to 2011. Most of the materials come from the years 1960-2000 with a primary focus on Benjamin’s relationship to African American art. A large portion of the collection centers on African American artists, such as Loïs Mailou Jones, as well as Hayes Benjamin’s long-standing relationships with different professional art organizations such as the National Conference of Artists. There is also a special emphasis on her interactions with and collecting practices related to the African American art scene in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The collections include interview transcriptions; memos; meeting agendas; curatorial notes and documents; correspondence; writings; ephemera; newspaper clippings; academic lecture materials and notes; and exhibition catalogs; as well as audio, film, and photographic materials.
The Michael D. Harris Collection
Michael D. Harris (1948 -2022) was an artist, writer, curator, poet, and scholar. In his work as a scholar he was also an activist, promoting the reexamination of the depictions of Black individuals, communities, and cultures as they are represented in art and daily life. Michael D. Harris' accomplishments included earning six degrees in subjects ranging from Studio Art, Art History, and Philosophy to African American and African Studies. He worked at institutions such as the High Museum, the Harvey Gantt African American Cultural Center, Emory University, UNC Chapel Hill, and many more. His master’s thesis and dissertation focused on the kanaga mask of the Dogon peoples and contemporary Yoruba art, respectively. Dr. Harris was a scholar of the Yoruba language as well and was known to some by his Yoruba name “Olusina,” which means “the Lord opens the way.” His artwork has been displayed in the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean.
The Michael D. Harris Collection measures approximately twenty-four linear feet with an additional 90 GB of digital files. The collection includes correspondence; taped interviews and transcriptions; photographic prints and 35mm slides; field notes from Harris’ study in Ile-Ife, Nigeria; publications and unpublished writings by and about Harris, including his poetry; records of his curation and participation in AfriCOBRA; books; newspaper clippings; and ephemera. The collection documents Harris’ development as a scholar, artist, and curator across five decades and two continents.
To begin exploring this collection, visit our virtual exhibition Imaging Self at https://driskellcenterarchivesexhibitions.wordpress.com/2023/06/02/imaging-self/
The Alonzo Davis Collection
Artist, gallery owner, professor and activist, Alonzo Davis (b. 1942), has donated his archive documenting his career in the arts. Currently based in Hyattsville, Md., Alonzo Davis was born in Tuskegee, Ala., and moved to Los Angeles in his early teens. After graduating from Pepperdine University, Davis later earned his MFA in Design and Printmaking at Otis College of Art and Design (then Otis Art Institute) in 1973. It was at Otis that Davis studied with influential artist Charles White (1918-1979). Davis and his brother, Dale Brockman Davis, went on to found the Brockman Gallery in South Los Angeles in 1967. The Brockman Gallery, which the brothers owned and operated until 1991, was the first major Black-owned gallery in Los Angeles, furthering the careers of many Black artists. Alonzo Davis became involved in the California mural movement and his well-known mural, Eye on ’84, was created that year to commemorate the Olympics in Los Angeles. Davis’ vision is often expressed in mixed media works, executed in series, allowing the artist to fully “exhaust” an idea before moving on. Moreover, they often bridge the arts by, for example, involving musicians and dancers to interact with the works, notably with his Power Poles. His artistic practice is informed by a life of travel and ongoing engagement with issues surrounding climate change and the struggle for social justice.
The entire collection, which currently reaches approximately fifty-five linear feet, includes correspondence; journals containing notes and sketches; material related to exhibitions of Davis’s and other artists’ work; materials documenting his travels and residencies at art institutions around the world; materials documenting public art and commissions; documents related to the running of the Brockman Gallery in Los Angeles; academic materials; news clippings; ephemera; photographs; 35mm slides; and audiovisual material, all documenting Alonzo Davis’s transcontinental and international career in the arts, now in its seventh decade.
Other Collections
Research Fellows will also have the opportunity to consult other collections within the Driskell Center Archives such as the David C. Driskell Papers and the Harmon Foundation Papers.
Eligibility and Evaluation
We welcome proposals from emerging scholars, including graduate students and those who have completed graduate degrees within the last five years. To apply, please send (1) a project proposal of no more than 1000 words, (2) a resume, (3) an academic writing sample of no more than 10 pages, and (4) one letter of reference to driskellcenter@umd.edu by September 1, 2023. The proposal should outline relevant experience and accomplishments, the proposed research topic, and an explanation of how the Center’s holdings will support that topic.
The David C. Driskell Center
Committed to preserving the rich heritage of visual art and culture of the African diaspora, The David C. Driskell Center was established in 2001 at the University of Maryland in College Park to provide an intellectual home for artists, museum professionals, art administrators, and scholars working to expand and deepen the field of African diasporic studies in the visual arts. Home to object-based art collections, archival collections, and an extensive research library, The Driskell Center is a world-renowned institution dedicated to the protection, the study, and the display of art and visual culture of the African diaspora.