Watch CBS News

African American Museum Mixes Metaphors In New Exhibit

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Just in time for Museum Day, the African American Museum of Philadelphia is opening a new exhibit. The museum is one of several local institutions, including the National Constitution Center and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts that will offer free admission on Saturday.

Visitors to the African American Museum can see the exhibit, "Mixing Metaphors," featuring seldom-seen work by 36 artists.

The work is from a private collection held by Bank of America and selected by Philadelphia photographic artist Deborah Willis, who said she was looking for work that captured her imagination.

Museum president Ramona Benson says the mixed metaphors of the exhibit are not just the wildly diverse media the artists work with, but the wide ranging subjects. "It's the aesthetic, the social and the political in African American Art."

You can hear Pat Loeb's interview with Ramona Briscoe Benson in this CBS Philly 'At Your Leisure' podcast…

Podcast

Benson says it's a large show -- 90 pieces are on display. Exhibitions curator Richard Watson says it was exhausting to mount, but satisfying, "I have enjoyed handling and being close to this work and the joy of hanging it in an arrangement that speaks to the experience as they relate not only one section to another but to the photographs themselves."

The show runs through December 31st.

Reported by Pat Loeb, KYW Newsradio 1060

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.