As the dim lights of the Bridgwater Lounge began to brighten, audience members' eyes stayed transfixed to the makeshift stage at the front of the room. Each of the three performances of the night: a poet, a filmmaker and a women-led band highlighted different aspects of Black artistry.
In celebration of both Valentine’s Day and Black History Month, the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center partnered with the Eskenazi School and the Eskenazi Museum of Art to host the event, “For the Love of Black Art.” The experience entailed community members and students engaging in an immersive three-part culture crawl.
“It's important to uplift Black voices and Black artwork especially in a place like Bloomington where there is hard time showing these minorities and the diversity,” Rose Herron, a sophomore studio art major, said. “People work so hard to make these pieces that might not see the light without events like this.”
Herron snaps photos of visitors and the night’s happenings to post to the Eskenazi School’s Instagram page as a part of her social media takeover for the event.
The night began with an enriching guided walkthrough of the art museum focusing on Black Art. Visitors were encouraged to speak up about how various pieces impacted them.
At the museum's closing, tour guides ushered visitors through the breezeway connecting the museum to the Grunwald Gallery housed within the Fine Arts Building.
The gallery, currently home to an exhibition titled, "YOU (probably) HAVEN’T SEEN THIS BEFORE," highlights historically underrepresented communities’ narratives and films.
Playing in the center of the gallery, unused footage from a 1958 film produced by the IU Audio-Visual Center, “Indianapolis Attacks its Slums” is the focal point of the exhibition. Chairs surrounded the screen with wired headphones available for viewers to listen in.
Capturing the hardships as well as the joys experienced by impoverished, predominantly Black communities in Indianapolis during the late 1950s, the film encourages viewers to contemplate long-overlooked experiences in society.
Gloria Howell, director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center and known affectionately as Dr. Glo, finds ways to enrich all aspects of students’ experiences.
“For the Neal-Marshall, collaboration is very important,” Howell said. “Partnerships, especially with schools, are important to show students that no matter what area you're in, what school, this space is for you. We are not just here only to support students with their community and social needs, but also support them academically.”
The night came to a close with a performance and reception in the Neal-Marshall Center.
Guests loaded their plates with free food and drink before taking their seats in Bridgwaters Lounge to await the performances.
Howell introduced each performer before they took the floor in the intimate lounge.
“Yours Truly,” a Black-women-led 13-piece band, performed “Sweet Love,” by Anita Baker. The stereo system gave out halfway through, inviting an impromptu acapella performance. The audience swayed and sang along.
Tianrui Ma, the other half of the tandem team in charge of planning the event and director of inclusion, diversity, equity and access at the Eskenazi School, sat attentively watching the performances.
“The takeaway I hope people have after the event is that the community that we have here, whether it's the African American Black community, or the Eskenazi School community or the museum community, we are all working together in promoting the beauty of everything we do at IU, the collaboration we have,” Ma said. “It's love. Love for art, love for black culture, love for IU.”
After the performances, guests had the chance to connect with each other and celebrate the powerful impact of Black Art.
