Exhibits

A five-city exhibit tour, Stages of Struggle and Celebration: Black Theatre in Texas,  launched on Saturday, April 9, 2016 at the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center in Austin, with an exhibit reception from 2-4 p.m. The exhibit showcased Texas State University professors, Drs. Sandra M. Mayo and Elvin Holt’s groundbreaking research featured in their two books on Black Theatre in Texas, published by the University of Texas Press, Austin: Acting Up and Getting Down: Plays by African American Texans (2014) and Stages of Struggle and Celebration: A Production History of Black Theatre in Texas (2016). The tour ran in 2016 from April 9th to June 25th in Austin, July 2nd to August 28th in Houston, September 3rd to October 30th in Dallas, November 4th to December 11th in San Antonio, and in 2017, from January 14th  to February 19th in Fort Worth. After the opening at the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center in Austin, the exhibit venues included the Central Library (Houston), Dallas Public Library (Central Branch), Carver Community Cultural Center (San Antonio), and Fort Worth Public Library (Central Branch), respectively. The opening reception in each city included a brief overview of the books by Mayo and Holt, readings from the plays by black Texas playwrights, introduction of local artists, book sales and signing, and refreshments.

 

The 5-city tour was preceded by the inaugural exhibit at the Wittliff Collections gallery at Texas State University upon the publication of the anthology Acting Up and Getting Down: Plays by African American Texans (2014) curated by award winning author and curator, Steve Davis of Texas State under the auspices of the Southwest Writers Series (co-sponsors of the publication). In addition, concurrent with the 5-city tour, in 2016 (October 17th – December 15th) Texas State’s Center for the Study of the Southwest curated an exhibit from archived materials held in the Wittliff Collections echoing the 5-city tour.

 

Wittliff Collections Exhibit (article)

https://www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu/about/news/march11-2014-actingup.html

 

Center for Study of the Southwest Exhibit October 17th-December 15th, 2016

https://www.txstate.edu/cssw/news-events/events/btt.html

 

See here exhibit highlights as they appeared at each venue: