The roots of visual art among Wisconsin’s African Americans lie in a fugitive slave known only as Joe. Wisconsin was a popular stop for slaves fleeing the South via the Underground Railroad in the 1800s. Joe is the first known and documented person of African descent to paint a picture in Wisconsin. He tailored clothes and made toys for Rooney’s two children and demonstrated further artistic prowess when he painted a portrait of the children wearing the clothes he had hand-sewn with the girl holding a doll he had crafted.

Subsequent years saw a continual struggle for African American artists to receive the recognition they deserved because of established (and unofficial) policies and laws. Henry Ossawa Tanner and Romare Bearden were two whose work and reputation were given national recognition, but for most it was a struggle. Slowly, and really only in the last twenty years, have things changed for the better.

This exhibition features contemporary artists who have not only established themselves as artists in their own right, but have made a commitment to being artists here in Wisconsin, a state with a historically small African American community. Additionally, and just as significantly, they have reached positions of great influence to current and future generations through their roles as practicing artists and teachers in various universities, colleges and schools. Trenton Baylor (UW-Parkside), Brad Bernard (Mount Mary College), Larry Chatman (MIAD), Freida High W. Tesfagiorgis (UW-Madison) and George Williams (Beloit Collage) produce diverse bodies of work that deal with the personal, universal, political and cultural worlds both here in Wisconsin, nationally and internationally. In short, they may reside in Wisconsin, but they find inspiration far beyond their geographical boundaries.