Portia James | |
|---|---|
 Portia James, 1985. | |
| Born | March 11, 1953 |
| Died | December 2, 2015 (aged 62) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | cultural resources manager |
Portia James (March 11, 1953 - December 2, 2015) was an American curator and historian. A specialist in African-American material culture, she worked as the cultural resources manager of the Anacostia Community Museum. [1]
James graduated from Wayne State University, and Howard University. [2]
James' exhibition work included The Real McCoy: African American Invention and Innovation, 1619-1930 (1989); Black Mosaic: Community, Race and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, DC (1994); Down Through the Years: Stories from the Anacostia Museum Collection (1996); [3] East of the River: Continuity and Change (2007); Jubilee: African American Celebration (2008); [4] Exercise Your Mynd: Bk Adams I AM ART (2012); Arture (2012); Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence (2013); [5] and Hand of Freedom: The Life and Legacy of the Plummer Family (2015). She researched the life of Leslie J. Payne. [6]
The Smithsonian Institution, or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." Founded on August 10, 1846, it operates as a trust instrumentality and is not formally a part of any of the three branches of the federal government. The institution is named after its founding donor, British scientist James Smithson. It was originally organized as the United States National Museum, but that name ceased to exist administratively in 1967.
The Anacostia Community Museum is a community museum in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It is one of twenty museums under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution and was the first federally funded community museum in the United States. The museum, founded in 1967, was created with the intention to bring aspects of the Smithsonian museums, located on the National Mall, to the Anacostia neighborhood, with the hope that community members from the neighborhood would visit the main Smithsonian museums. It became federally funded in 1970 and focuses on the community in and around Anacostia in its exhibitions. This museum also houses a library.
The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from both Sub-Saharan and North Africa, 300,000 photographs, and 50,000 library volumes. It was the first institution dedicated to African art in the United States and remains the largest collection. The Washington Post called the museum a mainstay in the international art world and the main venue for contemporary African art in the United States.
Kingman Park is a residential neighborhood in the Northeast quadrant of Washington, D.C., the United States capital city. Kingman Park's boundaries are 15th Street NE to the west; C Street SE to the south; Benning Road to the north; and Anacostia Park to the east. The neighborhood is composed primarily of two-story brick rowhouses. Kingman Park is named after Brigadier General Dan Christie Kingman, the former head of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
Honfleur Gallery located on Good Hope Road in the Anacostia Historic District neighborhood of Washington, D.C., is a gallery that was established in January 2007 by the Action to Rehabilitate Community Housing group. The art gallery opened amid concerns of whether an art gallery was what the neighborhood needed.
Lonnie G. Bunch III is an American educator and historian. Bunch is the fourteenth secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the first African American and first historian to serve as head of the Smithsonian. He has spent most of his career as a history museum curator and administrator.
Eastern High School is a public high school in Washington, D.C. The school is located on the eastern edge of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, at the intersection of 17th Street and East Capital Street Northeast. Eastern was a part of the District of Columbia Public Schools restructuring project, reopening in 2011 to incoming first-year students and growing by a grade level each year. It graduated its first class in 2015. In addition, Eastern was designated an International Baccalaureate school in 2013 and awarded its first IB diploma in 2015. As of the 2022–2023 school year, it educates 766 students in grades 9 through 12.
John Robert Edward Kinard was an American social activist, pastor, and museum director. He is best known as the director of the Anacostia Museum, a small community museum founded by the Smithsonian Institution in 1967. Kinard was the museum's first director, and remained in the post until his death. The Washington Post said Kinard was "a passionate believer in the idea that the well-being of black people depends on having a record of their past". Noted British archeologist and museologist Sir Kenneth Hudson said Kinard "developed the Anacostia Museum into one of the small number of museums of influence in the world."
Louise Daniel Hutchinson was an American historian. She was the former Director of the Research at the Anacostia Community Museum. Growing up in Washington, D.C., Hutchinson was exposed to the Civil Rights Movement and the importance of community. Hutchinson worked closely with the African American community of Washington, D.C., and staff at the Smithsonian Institution to help build the Anacostia Community Museum. She was a historian of the Anacostia community.
Camille Giraud Akeju is American curator and educator. She is the former director of the Anacostia Community Museum in Washington, D.C.
Gladys-Marie Fry was Professor Emerita of Folklore and English at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, and a leading authority on African American textiles. Fry earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from Howard University and her Ph.D. from Indiana University. She is the author of Stitched From the Soul: Slave Quilting in the Ante-Bellum South and Night Riders in Black Folk History. A contributor or author to 8 museum catalogs, Fry is also the author of a number of articles and book chapters. Fry has also served as the curator for 11 museum exhibitions and consultant to exhibits and television programs around the nation.
Michael Atwood Mason is an American folklorist and museum professional. He served as CEO and Executive Director of President Lincoln's Cottage. Up to February 2021 he was the Director of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Martha Jackson Jarvis is an American artist known for her mixed-media installations that explore aspects of African, African American, and Native American spirituality, ecological concerns, and the role of women in preserving indigenous cultures. Her installations are composed using a variety of natural materials including terracotta, sand, copper, recycled stone, glass, wood and coal. Her sculptures and installations are often site-specific, designed to interact with their surroundings and create a sense of place. Her works often focus on the history and culture of African Americans in the southern United States. In her exhibition at the Corcoran, Jarvis featured over 100 big collard green leaves, numerous carp and a live Potomac catfish.
The Barnett-Aden Gallery was a nonprofit art gallery in Washington D.C., founded by James V. Herring and Alonzo J. Aden, who were associated with Howard University's art department and gallery. The gallery, which opened on October 16, 1943, and operated until 1969, was the first successful Black-owned private art gallery in the United States; showcased numerous important artists; and became an important, racially integrated part of the artistic and social worlds of 1940s and 1950s Washington, D.C.
Edith T. Martin is an American artist and museum professional.
Amber Robles-Gordon is an American mixed media visual artist. She resides in Washington, DC and predominantly works with found objects and textiles to create assemblages, large-scale sculptures, installations and public artwork.
Bruce McNeil was an American environmental fine arts photographer predominantly known for photographic work which has documented the Washington, DC area waterways. For over two decades his environmental photography has especially focused on documenting the Anacostia River. The Washington Examiner and The Washington Post have dubbed him as “DC River Man” and “Washington’s River Man.” He was the organizer of the Anacostia River School of Photography, "a ragtag group of a half-dozen photographers who either live or work in the neighborhood and are devoted to shooting the river and its environs."
Ric Garcia is an American fine arts painter, digital printmaker, and curator of Cuban ancestry currently working and residing in the Greater Washington, DC area.
Zora Martin-Felton was an American museum director and curator. She established the education department at the Anacostia Community Museum, which is a museum in the Smithsonian Institution and worked as Director of Education from 1967 to 1995.
Adolphus Ealey (1941–1992) was an American artist, curator, educator, writer, and entrepreneur. He was African-American and a noted Black art authority, and he was the longtime curator of the Barnett–Aden Collection of Black art.
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