CMCA and Indigo Arts Alliance are proud to present David Driskell: A Life in Art, Gardening and Material Culture. Highly regarded as an artist, scholar and curator, David Driskell is one of the world’s leading authorities on African American Art. He has been the recipient of thirteen honorary doctorates and has contributed significantly to scholarship in the history of art on the role of Black artists in America.  His paintings and collages reflect his personal vision and memory. Marked by the artist’s abiding color sensibilities, his work bears the imprint of a turbulent era, a return to nature, and Driskell’s synthesis of the European, American, and African art forms he knew firsthand

David Driskell, Born in 1931 in Eatonton, Georgia.  He was educated at Howard University and received a Master of Fine Arts from The Catholic University Of America.  In 1953 he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.  In 1961 he became a summer resident of Maine.  He currently holds the title of Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, at the University of Maryland, College Park.  In 1997, Driskell was awarded the President’s Medal, the highest honor the University of Maryland bestows on a member of its faculty.  In the 1998, the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora was founded to promote his scholarship and service to the University.  In December of 2000, President Bill Clinton bestowed the National Humanities Medal on Driskell. Trained as a painter and art historian, Driskell works principally in collage and mixed media.  His paintings and prints have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the USA, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Oakland Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art.  He has been the recipient of several foundation fellowships among which are the Harmon Foundation, three Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships and the Danforth Foundation.

Myron M. Beasley, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at Bates College. He is a scholar and international curator. His ethnographic research includes exploring the intersection of cultural politics, art and social change, as he believes in the power of artists and recognize them as cultural workers; He has been awarded fellowships and grants by the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Kindling Fund, The Davis Family Foundation, the Ruth Landes Award from the Reed Foundation, and most recently Dorathea and Leo Rabkin Foundation for his ethnographic writing about art and cultural engagement. Some of his recent curatorial projects includes Re:Past:Remembering Malaga (Maine , Print Protest Poster (Able Baker Gallery, 2018),  Patience on a Monument: Recent work by Eto Otitigbe (UT, Austin 2016), Raw Material, Dakar’rt (Dakar 2014) The Ghetto Biennale (Haiti), CAAR Paris (France).  His writing has appeared in many academic journals including Liminalities: The Journal of Performance Studies, The Journal of Poverty, Text and Performance Quarterly, Museum & Social Issues, The Journal of Curatorial Studies and Performance Research, Gastronomica.