Friends of African American Art & Culture

The Friends of African American Art & Culture welcomed home artist and South Carolina native YoYo Lander for a moderated conversation. Through a meticulous process of strategically placing individually stained pieces of watercolor on paper, Lander’s works beautifully capture those small moments in the everyday lives of her subjects, evoking emotion and creating human connection. “My aesthetic is visceral and expressive,” explains Lander. “My passion is to use body language as an introduction to context where one might find a sense of truth.” 

Ingrid O. McMillan — FAAAC board member and former curator of history, art and culture at the York W. Bailey Museum at the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, S.C. — engages Lander in conversation.

Honor a major milestone with the Friends of African American Art & Culture (FAAAC) and meet the CMA’s new curator, Michael Neumeister. The CMA affinity group celebrates Modern Rhythms, a new gallery featuring works on paper from the CMA Collection and showcasing FAAAC’s first-ever art acquisition — Oliver Lee Jackson’s Monotype IV (2006) — recently gifted to the museum. 

Kwame Brathwaite’s photography popularized the political slogan “Black is Beautiful” throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, and it still resonates as powerfully today as it did at the height of the second Harlem Renaissance. To honor the work of Brathwaite, the history of the culture, and the continued importance of the message, join CMA affinity group Friends of African American Arts & Culture (FAAAC) as they bring together Black lovers of art to share their experiences and explore the impact and relevance of Brathwaite’s photography in today’s political and cultural climate.