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Spirituality has vitally guided the survival and resilience of black communities in America. It has served as a stronghold and moral compass, as well as a guiding light, inspiration for community and self-determination. In this exhibition, we gaze on the subject of spirituality that reflects religion, faith and iconography, both shared and individual. In Practice as Revelation, we invited artists whose practice reveals itself more as revelation, whose hands create forms that are considered extensions of divine will. Faith and Memory presents profound representations of what is stitched together by time and experience, and Embodiment of the Divine offers entry points into welded iconography and provides moments of reflection.

The Materiality of The Sacred features influential historical figures and contemporary innovators in black craft practice with forerunners William Edmondson, Bessie Harvey, Greg Ridley, Joe Light and Earl Hooks, their creative descendants Ted Jones, Wilson Lee Jr., Charlie Newton, Willard Hill, and Aundra McCoy, as well as stellar innovators Samuel Dunson, Elisheba Mrozik, Rahn Marion, Francis Akosah, Lorenzo Swinton, James McKissic, Karen Sullivan and Desmond Lewis. This exhibition is presented by Fisk University’s Carl Van Vechten Gallery in partnership with the Crafting Blackness Initiative with Tennessee Craft and support from the Tennessee Arts Commission, ETSU Slocumb Galleries and partners. Please join us during the opening reception and upcoming public engagement events. Gallery hours are from 10am to 4pm Monday-Friday. For visits or tour requests, please contact co curator Lakesha Calvin at lmoore@fisk.edu. Please visit the https://craftingblackness.org for more details information.

Materiality of the Sacred

April 2 to August 31, 2026

Fisk University Carl Van Vechten Art Gallery

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 2, from 5:30 t o 7:00 p.m.

Co-curated by Crafting Blackness Initiative co-director Karlota Contreras-Koterbay and Tennessee Craft Governing Board Member Carlton Wilkinson, the curatorial locus revolves around ‘Blackness as Inclusion,’ assertions of the vital reality of Black gazes’ capacity to embrace cultures. The featured artists include stellar line up headed by Clarksville’s very own master craft artist Ludie Amos, Alice Aida Ayers, Seyi Babalola, Olasubomi Aka-Bashorun, Marteja Bailey, Omari Booker, LeXander Bryant, Jane Buis, Landry Butler, Bill Capshaw, Gail Clemons, Tina Curry, Samuel Dunson, Kimberly Dummons, Amanda Ewing, Jason Flack, Cynthia Gadsden, Earline Green, Barbara Hodges, Leroy Hodges, Tobertha Jackson, Jay (3 Woke) Jenkins, Alexis Jones, Henry L. Jones, Ted Jones, Gediyon Kifle, Wilson Lee Jr., Dashawn Lewis, Hattie Marshall-Duncan, Wokie Massaquoi-Wicks, Aundra McCoy, Rod McGaha, Armon Means, Lester Merriweather, LaKesha Moore, Andrew Morrison, Elisheba Mrozik, Michael Mucker, Althea Murphy-Price, Calvin Nicely, Jairo Prado, Christine Roth, Ashley Seay, Thandiwe Shiphrah, Lorenzo Swinton, Betty Turner, Maya Turner, Gary L. White, Ramona Wiggins, Carlton Wilkinson, Donna Woodley, Kevin Wurm with works by influential historical artists William Edmondson, Bessie Harvey, Sammie Nicely, Greg Ridley, and memorial to Alicia Henry.

The exhibition explores the Black identities coalesced around intercultural influences, forged by displacement, interracial unions and various geographic mobilities rooted from Africa across the seas. Participating artists identify as Black creatives as descendants, as they experience, living with, and being with Black culture that collectively defines Blackness in its myriad ways, a form of resistance to the aesthetic of exclusion, that has plagued the country’s history and social dynamics. Co-curator Carlton Wilkinson emphasizes, the “Black pigment in the physical definition includes the presence of all colors” as he adds, the combination of “parts of red, green, and yellow will make the color black.”  In the United States, a country of migrants borne out of colonial enterprise, its Black people share lineages with many cultures and groups worldwide. Blacks who identify their lineage from the formerly enslaved groups, to labor and academics who came as migrants, refugees or scholars, and those from military service are as many shades and narratives intertwined made visible, understood and embraced.

As part of multi community engagement activities, ‘Embracing Blackness Panel’ and performance by Giovanni Rodriguez and Friends are scheduled on July 10, First Thursday during the Clarksville Crawl from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center galleries. The Embracing Blackness panelists are Samuel Dunson, Christine Roth, Rod McGaha, Gary White and Hattie Marshall Duncan, facilitated by co-curators Wilkinson and Contreras-Koterbay. The panel starts at 5 to 6 p.m. at the Customs House Museum galleries followed by the dance performance from 6 to 7 p.m. at the courtyard.

The exhibition is on view until July 27, 2025, and is part of the Crafting Blackness Initiative, a research, traveling exhibition and publication project on the 100 years history of Black Craft artists of Tennessee. Supported by the Tennessee Arts Commission, South Arts, East Tennessee Foundation, Bravissima! Women Sponsoring the Arts and various partners through ETSU Slocumb Galleries. Historical works on loan courtesy of institutional partners Knoxville Museum of Art, Trahern Family Collection of Austin Peay State University, Tom & O.E. Stigall Ethnic Museum & Library, Allison and Martha Alfonso, Bill Hickerson, Carlton Wilkinson, and the Carl Van Vechten Gallery of Fisk University.

For more information about the Crafting Blackness Initiative, please visit https://tennesseecraft.org/crafting-blackness/ or email co-director Karlota Contreras-Koterbay at contrera@etsu.edu. The Customs House Museum and Cultural Center is located at 200 S 2^nd St., Clarksville TN 37040 with viewing hours daily except Mondays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please contact the museum for handicapped services accommodations at 931.648.5780.

Embracing Blackness: Diasporic Realities

May 10 to July 27, 2025

Customs House Museum & Cultural Center

Focus on cultural heritage that comprise the diversity of Blackness as visualizations of cultural influence on Black identity and sisterhood

Opening Reception: May 10, Saturday, from 5 t o 7 p.m.