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Press Release: Highlights From the David C. Driskell Center Permanent Collection

March 14, 2008 David C. Driskell Center for the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora

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Works of Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, Jacob Lawrence, and Martin Puryear are Presented at the David C. Driskell Center

COLLEGE PARK, MD.--- Highlights from the David C. Driskell Center Permanent Collection features fifty-three works by more than forty artists in the first exhibition from the art collection of the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Curated by the Center’s Executive Director, Dr. Robert E Steele, and Deputy Director, Dorit Yaron, Highlights presents the breadth of the Driskell Center’s art collection that spans from the 1880’s to 2008. The exhibition features works by artists Edward Bannister, Romare Bearden, Aaron Douglas, David C. Driskell, Melvin Edwards, Meta Warrick Fuller, Sam Gilliam, Jacob Lawrence, Jefferson Pinder, Martin Puryear, and William T. Williams, among others.

Highlights will be on view from Thursday, April 17, 2008 through Friday, June 13, 2008. The public opening reception will be held on Thursday, April 17, 2008 from 4:30-6:00PM at the Driskell Center’s gallery, 1207 Cole Student Activities Building, University of Maryland, College Park. The opening is being held in conjunction with the Seventh Annual David C Driskell Distinguished Lecture in the Visual Arts. This year’s lecture, “Alain Locke's: The Negro in Art,” will be presented by Dr. Richard A. Long, Atticus G. Haygood Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Emeritus, at Emory University, Atlanta. The lecture will be held at 6:00PM, following the exhibition’s opening reception. An RSVP for this event is required by April 13. RSVP either by calling the David C. Driskell Center at 301.314.2615 or by emailing driskellcenter@umd.edu. The lecture is being presented in conjunction with the 19th Annual James A. Porter Colloquium on African American Art organized by Howard University. This year’s theme is “From FESTAC to DOCUMENTA: Crossing Boundaries, Constructing Identities, Expanding the Discourse in African American Art and Art of the African Diaspora.” For more information on the James A. Porter Colloquium, contact 202.806.7072 or visit www.portercolloquium.org

The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland celebrates the legacy of David C. Driskell -- Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Art, Artist, Art Historian, Collector, and Curator -- by preserving the rich heritage of African American visual art and culture. Established in 2001, the Center provides an intellectual home for artists, museum professionals, art administrators, and scholars of color, broadening the field of African diasporic studies. The Driskell Center is committed to preserve, document, and present African American art as well as to replenish and expand the field of African American art.

The Center has moved to its new home at the Cole Student Activities Building (aka Cole Field House), located in the heart of the University of Maryland campus, adjacent to the Adele H. Stamp Student Union. The new Center includes an exhibition space, a vault for the Center’s permanent collection, an archive room, a study room, and offices.

The Highlights exhibition is supported, in part, by the Maryland State Arts Council and Prince George’s County Arts Council.