Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community

Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community

Salsbury, Britany
Benay, Erin
Powell, Richard J.

Hardcover

American Art - African American & BlackGeneral ArtPrintmaking

ISBN10: 0300279175
ISBN13: 9780300279177
Publisher: Cleveland Museum of Art
Published: May 6 2025
Pages: 176
Weight: 2.95
Height: 1.00 Width: 9.50 Depth: 12.40
Language: English

An exploration of the rich history of printmaking at Cleveland's Karamu House, a center of Black arts, culture, and community since 1915

Winner of the 2026 IFPDA Book Award

Winner of the 2026 Ewell L. Newman Book Award

Honorable mention of the ARLIS/NA 2025 George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award

Karamu House, founded as a settlement house in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1915, is one of the preeminent homes of Black arts, culture, and community in America. Noted for its theater program, Karamu House also hosts a rich legacy in the graphic arts. Printmaking workshops open to artists and community alike launched in the 1930s, allowing a young Langston Hughes--as one notable example--to experiment with print.

Linked with printmaking's ethos of accessibility and democracy, a group including Elmer W. Brown, Hughie Lee-Smith, Charles L. Sallée Jr., and William E. Smith--some of the most prominent Black printmakers of the WPA era--founded Karamu Artists, Inc. Reproductions of works by such artists are accompanied by essays situating the prints, the artists, and this locus of Black arts and culture in the histories it shaped. These writings are complemented by an interview with printmaker and Karamu alumnus Curlee Raven Holton.

Distributed for the Cleveland Museum of Art

Exhibition Schedule:

Cleveland Museum of Art

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American Art - African American & Black

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