Draft:Before the Americas

George Mason University Exhibition and Symposium

The exhibition was organized by GMU university curator Donald H. Russell and shown at GMU's Gillespie Gallery from August 25 to November 15, 2025.^[20][21][15] A corresponding symposium, the Before the Americas Symposium, was held on October 4, 2025, at GMU's Center for the Arts Concert Hall, accompanied by a GMU exhibition catalog.^[17][22] The symposium included two artist panels, a historical perspectives discussion, a panel of curators, a panel of collectors, and a live performance by Luis Vasquez LaRoche.^[23]

University of Maryland Global Campus Exhibition and Artist Panel

Before the Americas was shown at the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) from February 15 to May 10, 2026, at the UMGC Arts Program Gallery.^[3] A corresponding artist panel was held on February 15, 2026, accompanied by a UMGC exhibition catalog.^[24]

Artists and works

The exhibition featured works by artists whose contributions to American art are well documented, including Amy Sherald, Renée Stout, Alma Thomas, Elizabeth Catlett, Wifredo Lam, and Alonzo Davis, among others.^{[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]}. The works explored issues of ancestral memory, migration, and interconnectivity in African American, Afro-Latino, and Caribbean communities across mediums including sculpture, printmaking, and book art.^{[37][38][17][19]}

Curator

Cheryl Edwards is an artist, curator, and educator whose work addresses issues of cultural identity, displacement, and ancestral memory. She has a background in politics, law, and the visual arts.^[39][40] She was engaged by the Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) due to her expertise in the work of Black artists in the Washington, D.C. area.^[6][12][41]

Reception

The exhibition’s cancellation at the AMA and subsequent re-stagings received national and international media attention, with coverage in outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Le Monde, Hyperallergic, ArtNews, Art Forum, NPR, and The Guardian, which addressed debates over DEI policy and cultural funding as they related to museum programming.^{[42][1][2][43]}

References