Join us for a virtual conversation with the author of:

The Incredible Joy of Collecting African American Art: My Journal from Frog Town, S.C. to the National Gallery, a memoir by Patrick Diamond

The publication speaks to the author’s life growing up poor to becoming a collector of African American art from around the world. Diamond writes about an environment where Jim Crow laws and segregation limited opportunities due to social, political, and cultural inequities. He shares the personal experiences that encouraged his love of art beginning with his grandmother and extending to he and his wife supporting and celebrating African American artists.

In the book Patrick Diamond tells a poignant story of meeting Romare Bearden, for the first time in 1985, and the journey one of his prized artworks took to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The author talks about his book to Bearden Foundation Co-Director, Diedra Harris-Kelley. The conversation will be moderated by Victoria McCraven, the 2020-21 Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellow at the St. Louis Museum of Art.

For more than 46 years, Patrick and his wife Judy have collected 0ver 120 images from a diverse lists of artists including Charles Alston, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Jonathan Green and Jacob Lawrence. He lives in Charlotte, NC, and is a former Development Director of the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture there.

Tell Your Bearden Story is a new series of the Foundation’s Oral History Project that aims to highlight the real encounters of Bearden’s friends and family. These stories illuminate new perspectives, and round out what scholars and researchers often miss about histories.

To purchase copies of the book please visit the books website: https://www.incrediblejoyofcollecting.com/shop

This program is presented with Harlem One Stop & Harlem Cultural Collaborative.

ART: (book cover) Come Sunday, 1976 by Romare Bearden/Licensed by ARS