CURATORIAL + PROGRAMMING PROJECTS

PUBLIC PROJECTS, COLLABORATIONS, & CONVERSATIONS

Gallery entrance at University of Washington School of Art, featuring Commissioned portrait of Jacob Lawrence by Barbara Earl Thomas

EXHIBITION

SIMON BENJAMIN: A BOLT FROM THE BLUE

April 3rd - 20th, 2024

FILM SCREENINGS

“SUNDAY DINNER” – screenings + conversation in community
Sunday, April 7, 4-6pm
Wa Na Wari

UNION Projection: FORUM IV (2016)
April 7 – May 15 (Daily, Dusk-11pm)
Woodworth Building on 10th + Union

2024 Jacob Lawrence Legacy Residency

Guest Curator Berette S Macaulay

Jacob Lawrence Gallery at University of Washington, Seattle

About the Residency

Established in 2015, the Jacob Lawrence Legacy Residency is a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) funded artist-in-residence winter program that culminates in a Spring solo exhibition. Previous Jacob Lawrence Legacy Residency awardees are HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN?, Steffani Jemison, C. Davida Ingram, Danny Giles, Marisa Williamson, and Ariel René Jackson. Residents work closely with students, faculty, interns, the Director of the Gallery, and community partners to narrow the gap between practice, presentation, pedagogy, and reception. As such, the Jacob Lawrence Legacy Residency has become the signature program honoring Jacob Lawrence’s legacy and further advancing the gallery’s mission.

*Curator Announcement* ***HERE***, *Interview with Vivian Phillips for ARTE NOIR EDITORIAL* ***HERE***

the UN-[TITLED] project, Spring 2023

Conceived and Organized by commissioning Curator Berette S Macaulay

Curatorial Fellowship at On the Boards

Two blurred figures moving stridently left to right along a green landscape with blue sky horizon in the background. One person dressed in blue shirt and dark blue pants, the other in white pants and red shirt. “UN-[TITLED]” across bottom of image. — Photo © Berette Macaulay, Design by Gabriel Laemmle, logo design Stephen “Bishop” Christian

” a site-specific, multi-locational project that leads audiences through a series of visceral engagements with site histories, community meaning, cultural memory, and healing activations.”

Recipient of the Creation & Development Fund from the National Performance Network (NPN) and Jack Straw Artist Support Grants.

Co-commissioned by On the Boards Seattle March 2023 and BRIC Arts New York 2024/25 and is supported by Third Rail Projects and i•ma•gine e•volve.

PREVIEWS: March 23rd

RUN: March 24th - 26th!

On the Boards Performance page here

This project features creative collaborations by commissioned artists Benjamin Hunter, Margaret Knight, AIA, Nia-Amina Minor, and Kamari Bright, and theatre artist of Third Rail Projects, Tom Pearson.

Performers include Justin Lynch (TRP, New York), Akoiya Harris (Seattle), and marco farroni leonardo (Seattle).

UN-[TITLED] partners with Black Heritage Society of Washington State, Wa Na Wari Seattle - the People’s House, Vanishing Seattle, Arte Noire, Friends of Inscape, and Sankofa Theater. The project received grant support from National Performance Network and Jack Straw Cultural Center with On the Boards and BRIC Arts Media Brooklyn as presenting organisations.

MYSTIC OF A WOMAN

Permanent Exhibition of Rita Marley, Bob Marley Museum, Kingston, Jamaica

Curated by Berette S Macaulay, 2021 - opened February 2022

Honoring the active work and legacy of The Hon. Dr. Alpherita Constantia Marley, OB - respectfully and affectionately known in her communities as Nana Rita.

Curatorial Text excerpts:

Rita “Nana” Marley’s life is large, awe-inspiring, and well beyond the scope of artist, mother, wife, and widow. This exhibition makes evident her life as a business leader, legacy maker, humanitarian, and advocate in women and children’s rights, health, and education in Jamaica, Africa, and the diaspora.

- - -

This exhibition is comprised of archival images and artefacts from public holdings and personal family collections that document Rita’s life. It is also informed by supporting testimonies from her beloved communities, and her auto biographical work My Life with Bob Marley: No Woman No Cry (2005), co-written with Hettie Jones.

Black Cinema Collective (BCC), est. Spring 2019

Founded by Berette S Macaulay while enrolled in MA Cultural Studies program at University of Washington at the behest of Susan Harewood, PhD.

All programming co-organized by fellow artists-scholars Berette S Macaulay, Mateó B. Ochoa, and Savita Krishnamoorthy.

We examine and celebrate works of African and African diasporic filmmakers through programmed and partnered screenings, community discussions, and watch parties.

See our activities *HERE*

www.blackcinemacollective.org

Select partnership programs and team actions include:

2023 Black Cinema Collective Microgrant for 1st Time Filmmakers based in WA + OR. Four (4) awardees received $10,000 in unrestricted funds along with artist development prizes courtesy of Northwest Film Forum.

Wa Na Wari (HOME: Stories of be/LONGING and Black Spatial Elegance programs)

LANGSTON Seattle (SHAPESHIFTERS film program for Black Refractions exhibition)

Frye Art Museum (SHAPESHIFTERS program)

Grand Illusion Cinema (Neptune Frost Seattle premiere)

Meany Center for Performing Arts (Neptune Frost screening with NWFF, programmed with Saul William’s The Motherboard Suite performance, dir. Bill T. Jones)

Northwest Film Forum (Several film programs including African Worlds with Simpson Center featuring Abderrahmane Sissako, BLACK SONIC EVOLUTIONS series)

BCC is proud to be fiscally sponsored by Northwest Film Forum and is a recipient of the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture C.A.R.E. Grant (2023), the Seattle Foundation Creative Equity Fund (2021), the 4Culture Projects Grant (2021), the Redmond Arts Season Grant (2021), and the Simpson Center for the Humanities Graduate Research Grant (2019). BCC is currently a project of i.ma.gine | e.volve®

MFON in Seattle, November 2019 - March 2020

Proposed, organized and curated the MFON in Seattle program, bringing MFON Women Photographers of the African Diaspora* to Seattle. Program in partnership with Frye Art Museum, Jacob Lawrence Gallery at University of Washington, and Photographic Center Northwest.

*The seminal photography journal and global commitment of MFON Women Photographers of the African Diaspora was conceived, founded, and published by artist Adama Delphine Fawundu and photographer Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, inspired by the life and work of their friend and colleague, Nigerian-born American photographer Mmekutmfon ‘Mfon’ Essien.

p. 45 - frye art panel.jpg — MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora panel
Frye Art Museum
Nov 16, 2019
Panelists: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Berette Macaulay, Michelle Dunn Marsh
Moderator: Negarra A. Kudumu, Manager of Public Programs

Book signing to follow immediately after.

*Exploring Passages Within the Black Diaspora*
Photographic Center NW
Jan 16 – Mar 19, 2020
Curated by Berette S Macaulay

Exhibiting Artists: *Abigail Hadeed, Courtney Morris, Intisar Abioto, LeLeita McKILL, Mia K McNeal, Miatta Kawinzi, Nadia Alexis, Nadia Huggins, Ricky Weaver, Tiffany Smith, Zoraida Lopez*

Artist Panel: *Intisar Abioto, Courtney Morris, LeLeita McKill, and Nadia Alexis.*
Moderator Thea Quiray Tagle, PhD.
Opening remarks: Executive Director Terry Novak + Curator Berette S Macaulay.
Show hashtags:
#ExploringPassages #MFONinSeattle
* Poster image © Courtney Desiree Morris, *Colored Swimming Pool,* 2019

ALTAR_poster - designed by Raziah N. Ahmad.jpg — *ALTAR: Prayer, Ritual, Offering*
Jacob Lawrence Gallery
Nov 15 - 27, 2019
Exhibiting Artists: *Deborah Jack, Di-Andre Caprice Davis, Jamila Clarke, Maureen Douabou, Marilú Marengo Namoda, Petrona Morrison, Tiffany Smith, Valda Nogueira*
Curators: Berette Macaulay, Delphine Fawundu, Laylah Barrayn
Part of *MFON in Seattle* program, in partnership with Frye Art Museum, Jacob Lawrence Gallery at University of Washington, and Photographic Center Northwest.
* Poster image © Valda Nogueira, *Porto* series, 2012-2019

Curatorial Statement HERE

_____

Cover Image: Valda Nogueira, *Porto* series. Cover Design: Stephanie Channer

The MFON in Seattle exhibition catalog is available for purchase via:

illusive self, Nov 2013 - Jan 2014

a photo-based exhibition on immigrant and migrant identity retention, destruction, and (re)Creation

illusive self marketing - show flyer 1*Illusive_Self_Taller_Boricua_©_SeBiArt 007 copy.jpg — *illusive self*
Nov 15 2013- Jan 11, 2014
**Taller Boricua Gallery, New York**
**Artists:** Alma Leiva, Anni Merejo, Antonia Guerrero, Ashok Sinha, Athena Azevada, Ben Altman, Betty Cole, Jennica Chase and Hassan Pitts (Cui Bono), Edouard Steinhauer, Esperanza Cortes, Grace Aneiza Ali, Leenda Bonilla, Luis R. Cancel, Rachel Breitman, Robert Vogel, Shawn Escoffery, Tone Vasquez and Zoraida Lopez.
**Executive Director**: Fernando Salicrup (d.)
**Guest Curator**: Berette Macaulay

**Artist Panel**: *Negotiating Identity,* Nov 21st
with Anni Merejo, Antonia Guerroro, Athena Azevedo, Esperenza Cortes, Luis R. Cancel, and Zoraida Lopez

Moderator: Berette Macaulay

exhibition site ***HERE***
* Poster image (photo + design) created in collaboration by Berette Macaulay and Fernando Salicrup

i•ma•gine | e•volve, est. Spring 2010

Imagine evolve logo_2021 clear.png — i.ma.gine | e.volve®LLC - is an interdisciplinary public arts incubator, founded and slowly watered by Berette since 2010.

Projects include *Black Cinema Collective*, *reCONNECT Quilt*, *We Do Declare*, and [UN-TITLED] (working title).

See more ***HERE***.

www.imagineevolve.org