A lecture this weekend at the Norman Rockwell Museum will highlight the area’s connections to the Harlem Renaissance. Artwork from students at the Berkshire School also will be on display.Dr. Skip Meade is an English teacher at Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts and has been influential in the study and recognition of civil rights activist, co-founder of the N.A.A.C.P. and Great Barrington native W.E.B. DuBois. After World War I, DuBois became a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a wide ranging cultural reawakening, as described by Meade.
“The overall theme of the Harlem Renaissance, internationally and nationally, is I would think achievement and the ability to have the environment within which the talents of an individual, a people and a community can be nourished and blossom,” said Meade.
The student work on display is meant to express how students connected to the movement and work of illustrator Edward Hopper on exhibit at the museum.
The idea of achievement blooming through the pursuit of education in a specific setting is expressed in Berkshire junior Ieva Pranckeviciute’s work. The Lithuania native tapped into her sense of place within the boarding school’s community through her ceramic flower blossom…dark grey on the outside echoing another environment and a blasting of bright colors and shapes on the inside.
“This piece represents me in Berkshire how in this flower shape I am bursting with colors,” Pranckeviciute said. “I wanted this to be very bright, fun and full of texture and color. So inside you can see all of that texture, all of that color and outside is just a little bit darker.”
After touring an exhibit of largely unknown works of Hopper and learning about the Harlem Renaissance, students have been painting, cutting and drawing in preparation.
Work from six students ranging from digital art to graphite will be on display next to Hopper’s early 20th century illustrations. Norman Rockwell Museum’s education curator Tom Daly made the connection between the Harlem Renaissance and the introspective and often sullen Hopper.
“You have W.E.B. DuBois going out there almost as a solitary voice in talking about this opportunity for change,” Daly said. “You have the other voices starting to chime in at the point where Hopper’s career as an illustrator is really up and running. The Harlem Renaissance is starting to gel and we’re starting to have artists, playwrights and musicians all sharing this same emotion of loneliness.”
Berkshire School senior Melody Barros recognized the lack of interaction in Hopper’s work. Using graphite, Barros drew herself as a young girl looking out a window positioned next to an image of herself today. She is expressing her experience of growing up in Sheffield and how the joy of the Berkshires can be lost as one reaches teenage years.
“Me as a small child with an expression of a smile on my face with my little sister,” Barros explained. “On the right side, it’s me kind of looking more depressed. I found that in the Norman Rockwell Museum with Edward Hopper’s pieces. None of them looked at each other so I took that and it influenced me because I’m not looking directly into my eyes in the reflection.”
Meade says it’s important to remember the Harlem Renaissance or the New Negro Movement as it’s also known was driven by concurrent individual efforts. He points to Jessie Fauset, who read DuBois’ work, went on to become literary editor of his Crisis magazine and brought poet Langston Hughes to its pages.
“She became known as the midwife of the Harlem Renaissance,” Meade said. “There was an individual nurturing that had to happen.”
Daly says the movement’s inclusion of all people and their achievements makes it resonate today.
“In my mind it’s really where the Harlem Renaissance is inspiring for all,” Daly said. “It wasn’t necessarily something that was just for one group of people. It was something that reminded all of us that the arts cross-pollinate and they should do that.”
The lecture starts at 5:30 October 4th at the Norman Rockwell Museum.
