OUR STORY
OUR HISTORY
The AAMARP Program was the brainchild of Professor/Artist Dana Chandler, who in 1977, with the support of Northeastern’s then President Ken Ryder, offered studio space to African American artists to evolve their craft. In return for the use of space, artist made their studios accessible to students, educators and visiting artists.
The model of AAMARP attracted artists throughout the world, with a series of artist residencies exhibitions, concerts, lectures, workshops and other community events. AAMARP made it possible for thousands of Boston School children and adults to attend exhibits enriched by the participation of local music theater and dance groups.
AAMARP became widely recognized as a catalyst for harmonious relations between people of all backgrounds in a racially diverse community; a stimulus to excellence in artistic productivity; and a vehicle for the exchange of ideas and techniques.
Today AAMARP houses 2 writers in residence, and 13 master artists in residence – painters, sculptors, collagists, printmakers, photographers, bead/fiber, and installation artists; it houses the Cultural Café, two public galleries that also serve for community activities, and the Edward Strickland Community Partnership Workshop Gallery.
OUR VISION
Residencies:
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Working studios for master artists in residence
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Designated residencies (by different art forms and topics)
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Visiting artists and international exchanges
Community-based:
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Student convening and topical conversations
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Opportunities to meet the artists, master workshops and studio visits
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Highlight of community opportunities and resources
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Experiential learning units; intercultural arts and cultural delegations
Programs:
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Series of Gallery exhibits with opening receptions/ artist talks
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Arts and Dialogues
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Cultural celebrations; Historic milestones
OUR ARTISTS
Marlon Forrester
Marlon Forrester uses mixed media, painting, installation, collage and performance to manifest his vision of the world. Several bodies of work explores how signs, symbols, and rituals found within the game of basketball function to contextualize the black male body through the lens of pop culture, media and race.
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Shea Justice
Shea Justice uses the graphic novel and art posters to celebrate the Diaspora by creating pieces that link iconic figures of the past to those of the present. The result is a fresh take on subjects as various as the Civil Rights Movement, Hip Hop Culture, and Brer Rabbit stories.
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Ricardo Gomez
A muralist & painter, Ricardo Gomez creates narratives on Urban life ,culture, community and sports. His signature works in spray paint includes the collaboration on a 100 foot mural “ Roxbury Love: ( Mandela)”, and “The Gang”, painted in memory of …..Keith E. Elam AKA, “Guru of Gangstarr”.
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Jeff Chandler
A sculptor who uses an electric rotatory tool to carve, Jeff Chandler prefers poplar to harder woods such as oak. He is a self taught urban folk artist who reclaims wood to create new works of art. His current works include a series of furniture and masks. As a member of AAMARP his work has grown immensely.
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Don West
Photojournalist, Don West, focuses on people in context of their work, family and struggles for what they believe. His striking photograph in the exhibit is of women from a small Mozambique Village doing a greeting dance for the writers, doctors, artists and ministers in an ad hoc delegation of African Americans visiting that besieged country in 1988.
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Susan Thompson
A protégé of Allan Rohan Crite, textile and fabric artist, Susan Thompson, likes making things by hand in the tradition of Africans. Her quilts and other works are sometimes representational, at other times more concerned with colors and forms.
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Bryan McFarlane
Travel is one of the great teachers”, says water colorist and oil painter Bryan McFarlane who counts art residences in Beijing, Ghana and France as important ventures for his growth. A professor at UMASS/Dartmouth since 1993 and a long time studio artist at AAMARP, his art reflects a world view.
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Kofi Kayiga
An African Diaspora amalgam and deeply spiritual painter, Kofi Kayiga grew up in Jamaica, then lived in Uganda where he traditional religions. He has taught at Mass College of Art and Design since 1979. “ No part of the Diaspora is a stereotype to me,” says Kayiga.
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Reggie Jackson
Professor Emeritus at Simmons College, Reggie Jackson, visual artist and teacher currently teaching in Ghana , uses photography to illuminate the road he has traveled within African Spirituality. Using montage, collage, and realism as vehicles, his striking visualizations depict cultural continuities and struggle, while suggesting humanity’s divinity and connectedness to nature.
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L’Merchie Frazier
A maker of museum quality, narrative quilts, L’Merchie Frazier delves extensively into history so she can find infor- mation that reconnects you with the story before she sews. Her Amistad quilt that hangs in the AAMARP exhibit has pockets so you can leave the quilter a pertinent message if you like.
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Gloretta Baynes
Gloretta Baynes balances administrating AAMARP with allocating the time for creating novel art. Using airbrush, fabric, and textiles, she mixes contemporary subject matter with ancient African languages, such as her blended triptych portrait of soul queen Nina Simone against a wallpaper-like backdrop of Loma writing from Liberia .
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