An Open Letter to the National Museum of African Art Regarding Bill Cosby
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After last week’s radio silence, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art has released a new statement acknowledging the rape allegations against Bill Cosby. Sixty-two artworks owned by Cosby and his wife, Camille, are the focus of an exhibition currently on view at the museum called Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue.
Over the past few months, the Smithsonian has been criticized for not addressing the rape claims leveled against Bill Cosby. The comedian’s private art collection makes up a third of the works shown at the National Museum of African Art‘s (NMAA) 50th anniversary exhibition, the opening of which coincided with the media storm around the growing number of allegations. The show doesn’t just include art, but also pictures of Cosby and quotations by him.
Bill and Camille Cosby Funded the Smithsonian’s Exhibition of Their Art
WASHINGTON, DC — Upon entering the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (NMAfA), I made my way through the lobby and down a flight of stairs. At the bottom, I found myself on a kind of mezzanine, a carpeted space with a large window and waist-high glass barrier at the back. I could see a tall wall rising up from the gallery below, and as I approached the barrier, colorful quilts resolved into view. Above their strips of fabric and mostly abstract shapes, at the very top of the wall, was a quote. In large white text shining under a spotlight, it said:
“Quilts tell a story of life, of memory, of family relationships.” —Bill Cosby
(via What Should the Smithsonian Do with Its Show of Bill Cosby’s Art Collection?)
As rape allegations against Bill Cosby have continued to emerge this week, with a fifth and sixth woman stepping forward to publicly accuse the iconic comedian, the backlash has been swift: NBC and Netflix have both dropped plans for new projects with Cosby, while TV Land announced it would stop airing reruns of The Cosby Show indefinitely. But Cosby’s collaboration with the art establishment remains alive and well, as dozens of works from Bill and wife Camille Cosby’s personal collection are currently on view at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art.
WASHINGTON, DC — Ever since the National Museum of African Art’s 50th-anniversary exhibition Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue opened last November, the show has sparked exactly what its name intended: fervent debate, though not about the issues in the art but mainly about what the museum should do with the works belonging to Bill and Camille Cosby. The couple, whose collection accounts for roughly a third of the exhibition, also donated $716,000, essentially funding the entire show. With allegations against the now-infamous comedian mounting, most significantly after New York Mag’s deeply disturbing and extensively researched July article, the museum has faced increased pressure to remove the works or at least change Cosby’s prominent place in it.
What Museumgoers Think of the Smithsonian’s Cosby Exhibition
Over the past few months, critics have been debating over what the National Museum of African Art should do with its 50th anniversary exhibit Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue, which includes dozens of artworks from Bill and Camille Cosby’s personal collection. Shut it down immediately? Move up the closing date? Remove the Cosby-owned items?
A Sign the Smithsonian Is Getting Nervous About Cosby Exhibition
(via Rare Portraits of Kings and Commoners from 20th-Century Nigeria)
For over five decades Chief Solomon Osagie Alonge photographed the royal court and everyday life of Benin, Nigeria. Drawing on their collection of over 2,000 glass plate and large format film negatives, as well as around 100 prints, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is exhibiting some of his rarely-seen photographs.
WASHINGTON, DC — Out of patent litigation paranoia, inventor Alexander Graham Bell donated copies of his devices and sound recordings directly to the Smithsonian. He had, after all, experienced hundreds of challenges to his telephone patent in 1876. For over a century, most of those recordings when unheard. Recently the Smithsonian collaborated with Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the Library of Congress to harness particle physics technology and retrieve the only known recording of Graham’s voice, released to the public in 2013.
