Five Beauties Rising

Willie Cole’s evocative Five Beauties Rising is a set of five intaglio prints on paper depicting battered, broken, and discarded ironing boards, each with a woman’s name printed in capital letters below the image: Savannah, Dot, Fannie Mae, Queen, and Anna Mae. By bestowing a human name on an inanimate object, Cole invites the viewer … Continue reading Five Beauties Rising →

Recontextualizing Historic House Museums through a Contemporary Lens

Historic house museums are often caught in a struggle between past and present, tasked with merging the historical and the contemporary to share relevant stories that resonate with modern audiences. While many historic house museums strive to incorporate histories beyond the apparent by delving into the labor required (often by enslaved people) to run the … Continue reading Recontextualizing Historic House Museums through a Contemporary Lens →