The Savoy, 1975
Projects
The Foundation has actively participated in and developed legacy-based programs and projects that advance new scholarship on Bearden, expand public knowledge of his involvement with other disciplines, including music and literature. Projects enhance the public visibility of Bearden and the Foundation.
Projects
Announcing the Romare Bearden Digital Catalog Raisonné Project
SEPT 2, 2020: The Foundation is working in partnership with the Wildenstein-Plattner Institute to publish the Romare Bearden Digital Catalogue Raisonné.
Catalog Raisonné of Collages & Paintings Project
The WPI is honored to partner with the Romare Bearden Foundation in helping to shape tomorrow’s art historical discourse. “The RBDCR advances the Institute’s mission to support art historical research and provide access to resources that have historically been inaccessible to the wider public,” explained Elizabeth Gorayeb, Executive Director of the Wildenstein-Plattner Institute. “Our goal is for this project to pave the way for new scholarship and to offer a richer understanding of how this important American artist has impacted and continued to shape the cultural landscape.”
Vital to this project will be the archival resources of The Romare Bearden Foundation, a non-profit organization established in 1990 by the estate of the artist to preserve and perpetuate his legacy. the digital catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work is an important milestone in fulfilling the Foundation’s mission. The Foundation will provide the WPI with access to a wealth of archival resources and other materials to be processed, digitized, and ultimately made available for public use. With foundational experience in catalogue raisonné research and production, the WPI is perfectly positioned to help the Romare Bearden Foundation bring the RBDCR into being.
Following the publication of the Jasper Johns catalogue raisonné and the announcement of the Tom Wesselmann Digital Corpus, the Romare Bearden Digital Catalogue Raisonné is the WPI's latest initiative dedicated to publications on major 20th-century American artists. A catalogue raisonné is a resource used primarily to document and understand the evolving history of a work of art and its place within the artist's production. Whereas printed publications are limited to static information that becomes obsolete with every passing day, a digital catalogue raisonné allows for ongoing revisions and additions to include the most up-to-date information and scholarship. The utility of the digital format, with its sophisticated searching and data-linking capabilities, will enable a more dynamic presentation of the artist’s entire production.
The WPI is uniquely positioned to leverage technical innovations from some of the most influential leaders in information technology and to offer the best resources and guidance to successfully helm this landmark project. Over the following year, the WPI’s team of archivists and tech specialists will be assessing the Foundation’s archives to map out the scope and execution of the project. More information regarding the progress of this initiative will be forthcoming in 2021.
Excerpt from the Wildenstein-Plattner Institute press release 9/2/2020
Database Project
The Foundation is embarking on a new project to create a comprehensive database from our Foundation materials. Establishing the Bearden Foundation as the clearinghouse of information on the artist.
Database Project
Correspondence, post 1988 exhibition information, and materials related to Foundation activities have been collected in an attempt to tell the ever evolving story of the artist, his art, and what subsequent generations have made of it.
Extensive image files track the numerous art works as they moved around in the world. Volumes of inventory lists, notes and catalogs attest to the accumulated knowledge and value of the institution.
These items will now make up the Romare Bearden Foundation Archives. The organization of things pertaining to activities outside of the artist’s lifetime will be organized much like the artist’s archive – by type and chronologically.
Together these collections tell a more complete story of how the legacy has endured. For over 27 years the Foundation has played a role in shaping these stories by providing access, and establishing itself as the clearinghouse of all things Bearden.
Publication Projects
In partnership with commercial publishers, the Foundation plans to print and distribute seminal publications generated from its symposium series as well as catalogues to accompany small touring exhibitions.
Publication Projects
Romare Bearden In The Modernist Tradition
Published in 2010, this book is based on the proceedings of the 2007 Bearden Symposium held at Columbia College in Chicago.The 133-page publication includes scholarly essays based on the papers presented at the symposium, transcripts of previous interviews, over 40 color and black & white Bearden works as well as other reproductions that illustrate the book.
This volume examines Bearden's relationship to Modernism, Postmodernism and the avant-garde, through his wide ranging interests and associations with artists, intellectuals and musicians of his era--including Duke Ellington, Ralph Ellison and Stuart Davis.
With introduction by Pam Ford, and essays by Kobena Mercer, Robert G. O'Meally, Dawoud Bey, Geoffrey Jacques, Courtney Martin, Paul D. Miller, Amy Mooney, Kymberly Pinder, Greg Foster-Rice, Rael Jero Salley, Helen Shannon, and others.
From Process to Print: Graphics Works by Romare Bearden
Published in 2009 by Pomegranate, this catalogue accompanied the exhibition From Process to Print: Graphics Works by Romare Bearden, organized by the Romare Bearden Foundation, and featuring an in-depth examination of Bearden’s graphic works.The catalogue presents essays by art historians and interviews with the master printmakers and publishers with whom Bearden worked, and feature various color and black & white reproductions of selected works from the exhibition.
Exhibitions
The Foundation has been an important resource for national and international exhibitions of Bearden’s artwork in major museums.
Exhibitions
Additionally, as part of the Cinque Artist Program, the Foundation organizes smaller traveling exhibitions of Bearden’s art in collaboration with Landau Traveling Exhibitions https://a-r-t.com/bearden/
Archives Project
The archives contain correspondence, sketchbooks, awards, sheet music, photographs, video and cassette tape recordings and published and unpublished manuscripts.
Archives Project
The archives contain correspondence, sketchbooks, awards, sheet music, photographs, video and cassette tape recordings and published and unpublished manuscripts. Bearden’s personal library of over 1,500 books and journals reflects the broad range of his artistic and aesthetic interests.
The project objectives were to process the collection to assess the full scope and contents of the materials, and to finally make the archival collection accessible to researchers, students and others. Thanks to a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation (NY) preservation of the Bearden Archives got a big boost.
In May 2013 the collection of materials left by Romare Bearden was finally on its way to becoming widely available to Bearden scholars, museum professionals and enthusiasts. The materials have been processed and cataloged, with an appropriate environment created for their storage, use and display.
Currently, the collection is available only for limited use by scholars and only by appointment. Once it is digitally catalogued, it will become an accessible resource for scholars, artists, art and cultural historians.
Oral History Project
The Oral History Project is an ongoing project collecting interviews with Bearden friends & collaborators.
Oral History Project
Because Bearden’s interests were multidisciplinary, interviewees with whom he intersected and collaborated are drawn from literary, dance, music and the performing arts worlds. This project enables the Foundation’s continued expansion of Romare Bearden Archives, with primary source material seminal to the field.
Partnerships
The Foundation has worked with the St. Louis Art Museum for the past three years to host Romare Bearden Fellows in New York. This Post Graduate Minority Fellowship was started in 1992 with the objective to cultivate future museum professionals from historically underrepresented groups or backgrounds by advancing the knowledge, skills, and networking capabilities that enable museum careers.
Bearden Fellows receive hands-on work experience in various museum functions, including curatorial, public programing, interpretive materials, audience development, marketing and fundraising. While specific assignments are tailored to the Museum's needs as well as the Bearden Fellow’s skill and interests, all Fellows receive individualized mentoring and training from senior museum staff that fosters confidence building critical to entry level museum professionals.
The Foundation had the opportunity to consult on the development of permanent signage for one of the biggest projects ever to celebrate a visual artist. Bearden’s hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina celebrated his life by building a park in his name and spirit. The park design is based on Bearden’s collages and paintings as interpreted by supervising artist Norie Sato.
In 2010 the Foundation began to plan a national celebration commemorating the 100 anniversary of Romare Bearden’s birth. Institutions that hold Bearden art participated in efforts to highlight those works that year; Bearden’s hometown of Charlotte, NC threw a citywide celebration with its cultural institutions; the Mint Museum of Art developed the signature exhibition Romare Bearden: Southern Recollections; The Studio Museum in Harlem created the 3-part exhibition The Bearden Project that commissioned contemporary artists to create artistic responses to the artist’s legacy; Cultural institutions around the country participated with their own programs of exhibitions, concerts, dance performances, talks and lectures.
The Bearden Foundation developed a new website dedicated to the centennial and capturing all the wonderful events in New York and beyond. The special feature “Bearden 100” allowed 100 artists to pick their favorite Bearden artwork. This idea was designed to give voice to the influence, as well as connecting back to these artist’s own work. Check out the Bearden 100 feature where artists weighed in on their favorite works.
The Bearden Foundation partnered with Macy’s New York in a national celebration of Bearden’s legacy. The project spread over twelve of their markets simultaneously, and was accompanied by a special webpage, in- store exhibitions, concerts, gifts and special guests. We had an overwhelming response and the beautiful displays helped to introduce Bearden art to new audiences.
Events held in stores: Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Atlanta, Aventura, Charlotte, New Orleans and Houston and New York City which featured Susan Taylor.
The Foundation conceived and led a historic seven-month long New York Citywide celebration to honor Bearden’s legacy. The Romare Bearden Homecoming Celebration (October 2004 – March 2005), coincided in part with the Whitney Museum of American Art’s presentation of his retrospective, and included over twenty participating cultural and educational institutions in all five boroughs offering engaging art, music, dance and family programs.
Through the Celebration, the Foundation reached a broad public, educating them about Bearden’s multifaceted talents and interests.
On the occasion of the retrospective in 2003, the National Gallery of Art commissioned a music album in recognition of Bearden’s love of jazz. This became the musical project of saxophonist Branford Marsalis and his recording label, resulting in Romare Bearden Revealed, a jazz CD inspired by Bearden’s art.
It featured all new arrangements of Bearden favorites, including the acclaimed song Seabreeze of which he co-authored. The Foundation contributed to the development of an accompanying booklet of images, now a collector’s item.