Artist Augusta Savage’s talent was indisputable from a young age. Soon the Harlem Renaissance would call her to New York, so she left her small town and headed for the Big Apple.
Right away, elite art programs admired her talent. France’s prestigious Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts was thrilled to welcome the talented sculptor Augusta Savage into their program. Until they discovered she was a Black woman.
They snatched her spot. Of course, other programs accepted her. But that wasn’t enough for Savage.
She transformed the anger over her rejection into a mission to make space for more Black artists to flourish free from discrimination, opening her own art gallery in America – the Salon of Contemporary Negro Art.
Savage’s art collections inspired dialogue on Black life with pieces such as “The Harp” and “Realization,” which depicted an enslaved couple at the moment they would be sold and separated.
Just like Augusta Savage did for artists in her day, we must continue to support the creation of spaces and communities that support our own, whether other institutions accept us or not.