THE 2024 CAMPAIGN FOR THE PRESIDENCY is historic in many respects. Democracy and freedom are on the ballot and the United States may elect its first female president. The attention of the world is on Tuesday’s election. Museums are engaged in the election, too.
Election Day (Nov. 5) is upon us with schools, libraries, community centers, and other public facilities serving as polling places. Cultural institutions and museums are also embracing their roles in civil society, committing their spaces to U.S. General election activities. Some of the museums are simultaneously presenting major exhibitions of African American artists.
In September, the DC League of Women Voters hosted a National Voter Registration Day at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. The 2024 Election is already seeing record turnout with early voting. At the time of publication, more than 77 million people have voted so far nationwide, according to the Associated Press and New York Times.
Many voters have cast their ballots at museums, although they are a rarity among voting sites. In New York the Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Museum of Natural History, and Brooklyn Museum welcomed early voters. One of the most anticipated exhibitions of the fall season is on view at the Brooklyn Museum. “Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies” is a long-overdue, comprehensive examination of the artist.
Museums in battleground states are also participating. In Georgia, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta is presenting multiple exhibitions featuring African American artists: “Tyler Mitchell: Idyllic Space”; “Patterns in Abstraction: Black Quilts from the High’s Collection”; and “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.” The High Museum also served as an early voting site.
The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) is a full-scale election hub. Working in partnership with the Ann Arbor City Clerk’s Office, the Creative Campus Voting Project and the UMICH Votes Coalition, UMMA is offering registration and voting services, from Sept. 24 through Election Day on Nov. 5. Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona is also a polling site.
The American Alliance of Museums encourages programming around voter engagement and provides museums with guidelines for nonpartisan activities.
In Los Angeles, the Hammer Museum at UCLA is also a major voting center. Early voting is available and voters can cast ballots at the museum on Election Day. The Skirball Cultural Center is also a voting site in Los Angeles, providing early and Election Day-voting.
Additional museums serving as polling sites include, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Alabama, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, and the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. These are just a few examples of museums participating in this year’s election. The American Alliance of Museums encourages programming around voter engagement and provides museums with guidelines for nonpartisan activities.
This evening, Vice President Kamala Harris is holding an Election Eve rally and concert on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The Democratic Presidential campaign said Oprah Winfrey, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Fat Joe will speak and the performers include The Roots, Lady Gaga, Jazmine Sullivan, DJ Cassidy, and Ricky Martin, among others.
(The location was made famous by boxer Rocky Balboa who trained by running the steps in the Rocky movie franchise. Sylvester Stallone played the fictional character, who was considered an underdog, as Harris has fashioned herself on the campaign trail.)
Tomorrow in Baltimore, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture is hosting an Election Night viewing party. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the Harris campaign is holding an Election Night event at Howard University. The HBCU is the vice president’s alma mater.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Wherever you are, Vote! The selected exhibitions below are on view at participating museums that served as voting sites:
Designed for A$AP Rocky by Alex Moss X Pavē, “Lego Pendant,” 2022 (14-karat gold with multicolored diamonds, sapphire, ruby, and enamel). | Alvaro Keding/© AMNH
Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry @ American Museum of Natural History, New York, N.Y. | May 9, 2024-Jan. 5, 2025
The American Museum of Natural History was an early voting site this election season, from Oct. 26-Nov. 3. Current exhibitions about elephants, sea turtles, endangered insects, scientific nomenclature, and ocean illustrations are the norm at the museum. “Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry” is an unexpected presentation in the Hall of Gems & Minerals. Fanciful, blinged out gold, diamond, and platinum custom-made jewelry commissioned by the likes of Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Erykah Badu, A$AP Rocky, Drake, Nas, Tyler the Creator, and Jam Master Jay reflect the influential style and personalities of hip hop legends from the 1980s to present. Nearly all of the artists are Black, the jewelry designers are not. Key highlights include Slick Rick’s royal crown, Biggie Smalls’s gold Jesus piece, and a diamond-studded Roc-A-Fella medallion.
TYLER MITCHELL, “Albany, Georgia,” 2021 (pigmented inkjet print). | © Tyler Mitchell, Courtesy of the artist
Tyler Mitchell: Idyllic Space @ High Museum, Atlanta, Ga. | June 21-Dec. 1, 2024
The High Museum of Art was an early voting site for this year’s U.S. General Election (Oct. 15-Nov. 1). The institution is also the hometown museum of photographer and filmmaker Tyler Mitchell (b. 1995), who grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta. Today, he lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y. Mitchell’s tender and alluring images are possessed with a keen sense of freedom and self-determination, joy, style, and leisure. In 2018, Mitchell garnered global attention when he photographed Beyoncé for Vogue’s September issue, becoming the first Black artist in history to shoot the fashion magazine’s cover. “Tyler Mitchell: Idyllic Space” features more than 30 images made between 2017 to 2024.
LUCY T. PETTWAY, (American, 1921–2004), “Birds in the Air,” 1981 (cotton and cotton-polyester blend). | High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2017.70. © Estate of Lucy T. Pettway
Patterns in Abstraction: Black Quilts from the High’s Collection @ High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga. | June 28, 2024-Jan. 5, 2025
Early voting services were provided at the High Museum of Art, from Oct. 15–Nov. 1. Drawn from the museum’s collection and showcasing a number of recent acquisitions, “Patterns in Abstraction” explores the contributions of Black female quilt artists to the history of abstraction. All 17 quilts featured in the exhibition were made by artists in the Southeastern United States—including Gee’s Bend quilters, Atlanta, Ga.-based quilters, and unidentified artists active in the early 20th century. Explore more on Culture Type
EMMA AMOS (1937-2020), “2/4 Time,” 1984 (mixed media, 37 x 47 inches). | Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. Spelman College Purchase
Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection @ University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA), Ann Arbor, Mich. | Aug. 24, 2024-Jan. 5, 2025
“Silver Linings” is on view at UMMA, a free campus museum and “one-stop-shop” for voting in Ann Arbor, Mich. The traveling exhibition celebrates the rich history of African diasporic art represented in the collection of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art and marks the 25th anniversary of the Atlanta museum, which was founded in 1996. The collection spans the 20th and 21st centuries. Forty works by nearly 30 artists are presented, including Emma Amos, Firelei Báez, Romare Bearden, Betty Blayton, Beverly Buchanan, Selma Burke, Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, Glenn Ligon, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Deborah Roberts, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Carrie Mae Weems, Charles White, and Hale Woodruff.
ELIZABETH CATLETT, “Untitled (Woman in Yellow Hat), 1943 (Tempera on paper). | J.L.W. Collection. © 2024 Mora-Catlett Family / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies @ Brooklyn Museum, New York, N.Y. | Sept. 13, 2024–Jan. 19, 2025
Early voting at the Brooklyn Museum coincided with a major exhibition of Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012). Best known for her sculptures and printmaking, the exhibition is the first comprehensive exploration of her practice, bringing broader, long-overdue attention her work. “Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies” presents more than 200 works, including archival materials. Born in Washington, D.C., Catlett spent the last six decades of her life in Mexico. Despite her remove, she “never lost sight of the Black liberation struggle in the United States. Characterized by bold lines and voluptuous forms, her powerful work continues to speak directly to all those united in the fight against poverty, racism, and imperialism.”
ODILI DONALD ODITA (American, born Nigeria, 1966), “Place,” 2018 (acrylic on canvas). | © Odili Donald Odita. The Dean Collection, Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo by Glenn Steigelman
Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys @ High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga. | Sept. 13, 2024-Jan. 19, 2025
The first major museum exhibition of the collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys features nearly 40 works by “giant” figures, including Ernie Barnes, Kwame Brathwaite, Jordan Casteel, Barkley L. Hendricks, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Odili Donald Odita, Ebony G. Patterson, Deborah Roberts, Jamel Shabazz, Amy Sherald, and Henry Taylor. Among the highlights: iconic photographs by Gordon Parks and large-scale paintings by Nina Chanel Abney, Derrick Adams, Titus Kaphar, and Meleko Mokgosi, and a massive sculpture by Arthur Jafa. Organized by the Brooklyn Museum, the exhibition is accompanied by a new catalog. About a month after “Giants” opened, the High Museum of Art served as an early voting site, from Oct. 15–Nov. 1, 2024.
Kind of Blue by Claudette Johnson (2020) © Claudette Johnson. Courtesy of the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London. Photo by Andy Keate
The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure @ Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pa. | Nov. 9, 2024–Feb. 9, 2025
The grand stairs in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) are the site of a Vice President Kamala Harris rally and concert tonight (Nov. 4), her final event before Election Day. This Saturday, “The Time Is Always Now” opens at PMA. The group exhibition features more than 60 figurative works across painting, drawing, and sculpture. Organized by British curator and writer Ekow Eshun, the traveling survey includes an international slate of 28 contemporary artists, including Michael Armitage, Claudette Johnson, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Amy Sherald, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Danielle Mckinney, and Deborah Roberts. CT
FIND MORE information about voting at vote.gov, vote411.org, which is run by the League of Women Voters, and whenweallvote.org, created by First Lady Michelle Obama
FIND MORE about museums and participation in this year’s election from the American Alliance of Museums
FIND MORE about the history of gaining the right to vote from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture
