Nancy Elizabeth Prophet Museum Visit (5 points)

Activity Category: Academic Enrichment, Cultural Expansion

Points: 5

    Nancy Elizibeth Prophet was an artist of African American and Native American descent, who to this day is influential to the Black community and to the Spelman community. She was the first African American graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and she later studied at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in PAris. In 1943 she joined the Spelman College community as a professor and was one of the main developers of the art curriculum there. She gave young African American girls what she didn’t have growing up: increased access to art education and creative expression. Nancy Elizibeth Prophet gave students the chance to express that creative part of their quiet interior, which is something not every young African American student was able to do. Furthermore, her involvement at Spelman helped give voices to underrepresented artists, and be an example of representation and leadership in the art world. 

When visiting the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, there were two pieces that stuck out to me. Peace, a horizontal wooden panel, and Discontent a stained magnolia wood sculpture of a head. Peace has painted wooden carvings of the faces of men and women looking in opposite directions. Some are holding their ear, some seem to be in prayer, and the interpretations are endless. The heads facing opposite directions could suggest a tension or a divide between the men and the women. While on the other hand, the character placing a hand on the ear could imply some sort of communication. 

In Science, Facts, and Feminism by ruth hubbard, some of these possible topics of interpretation are touched on, like how women’s capacity to become pregnant leave her with a disabled comparison with men. This is the first text that I thought of when seeing the painting because of the reference to tension between genders. I think that even though there are various interpretations, this is an effective one.

    The wooden sculpture Disconnect is a display of a man with a determined facial expression. The facial expression is said to represent dissatisfaction and discomfort with one’s own circumstances. Furthermore, it’s said to display the yearning of Black and Indigenous women in a world that suppresses and erases them. The first thought that comes to mind when I think about this feeling and kind of experience, is the story of Jack Daniel, and how his story and successes were oppressed for so many years. He was limited from financial opportunity and was blocked from being recognized by the Black community. This happens often in the Black community, and it’s difficult for African American’s work to be fully recognized because of the suppressing forces of systemic racism, cultural erasure, and exclusion from mainstream art and historical narratives.

Lana Washington