Watts: Art & Social Change in Los Angeles, 1965-2002 January 23 ? March 30, 2003 (Milwaukee, WI) In conjunction with the Sixth Annual International Arts Festival in Milwaukee highlighting African and African-American heritage, the Haggerty Museum of Art will present the exhibition Watts: Art & Social Change in Los Angeles, 1965-2002. The exhibition will include works by Nathaniel Bustion Jr., Dale Davis, Charles Dickson, John Outterbridge and Elliott Pinkney. These artists helped transform the Watts community by addressing social issues through their art using the visual, literary and performing arts as a catalyst. The exhibition will open on Thursday, January 23, 2003 with a presentation by the four participating artists at 6 p.m., followed by a reception from 7-9 p.m. at the Haggerty Museum. Watts: Art & Social Change in Los Angeles, 1965-2002 will feature art by African American artists working in Los Angeles following the Watts Revolt of 1965 to the present. The exhibition will provide a unique opportunity to focus on the rich body of work produced by artists, poets and musicians who were instrumental in exploring art as a means of social change. Artist John Outterbridge, Watts Community Housing President James Woods, and Haggerty Museum Director Dr. Curtis L. Carter, provided the concept development for the exhibition. "The Watts exhibition is an ongoing investigation of themes in African American culture the Haggerty Museum is exploring," said Dr. Curtis L. Carter. The exhibition will include sculptures by Outterbridge and Dickson, serigraph prints by Bustion Jr., and ceramic pieces by Davis. The artist Elliott Pinkney will be on-site to paint a mural for the exhibition depicting notable events in the Watts Community from 1965 to the present. The museum will hold an "open studio" with the artist during the painting of the mural, prior to the opening. Visitors and school groups can meet the artist and watch the work in progress. Watts artists reaffirmed the importance of learning and creative self-expression as an alternative to street violence. They mentored and inspired younger artists and participated in the urban renaissance of the area, while providing training for future artists in the community. John Outterbridge directed urban community art centers in Compton and Watts, California. The writers Johnie Scott and Eric Priestly were members of the Watts Writerís Workshop. The poet Jayne Cortez founded the Watts Repertory Company in 1964. John Outterbridge has become known for working with discarded materials and objects from the "urban wastelands." His Containment Series, created in response to the Watts riot of the late 1960s, provides a particularly poignant commentary on his environment. Outterbridge, like many of the Watts artists, often addresses issues of survival, ethnicity, freedom and mobility in his work. Charles Dicksonís work belies a strong African American influence ranging from bronze heads and life-like nudes to wooden drums and intricately carved heads containing minute symbols of life strategically placed in small crevices. His masks of colorful, styrene and vinyl plastic reference elements of traditional African cultures. Nathaniel Bustion Jr. incorporates images derived from traditional African cultures into his serigraph prints including Earth Mother, 1995 and Guardian of the Seed, 1995 featured in this exhibition. Not only has Bustion been a vital force in the arts in the Los Angeles area, but internationally as well, with exhibitions in Bern and Geneva, Switzerland, and in Antwerp Belgium. Dale Davisí Expressive Hands series crosses origins of race, tradition, geography, and social order. Utilizing the form of the human hand, Davis creates dynamic expressions through this most essential of body parts. Davis uses a variety of techniques in his artistic process ? from pit firing to inlays of abalone shell, no molds are used in the production of these works. The Watts Exhibition will also include poetry texts from artists Jayne Cortez, Eric Priestly and Johnie Scott, who worked in the Watts Writers Workshop. Priestly is the author of Abracadabra, a collection of poems that celebrate the variety and complexity of his life and of American culture as a whole over the last 30 years. The Watts Writers Workshop was vital to Priestlyís development, and he continues to document and explore themes of racial tension in his writings. Music is central to his work, and his poetryís beauty and meaning often comes from the sounds of the words. Johnie Scott, Associate Professor and Director of the Pan American Studies Writing Program at California State University at Northridge, was one of the original members of the Watts Writerís Workshop. "Writing saved my life," claims Scott. "The two way exchange of opinions at the workshop was vital to meÖit gave me the chance to let go and discover the artist within me." Scott edited The New Voices of Opportunity: Literary Essays on African American Literature and authored Black Film: A Critical Perspective. The poetry of Jayne Cortez will also be featured in the exhibition. Her works include Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere, Coagulations: New and Selected Poems, and Mouth on Paper. She has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and is a recipient of the International African Festival Award and the American Book Award. Cortez was the founder of the Watts Repertory Company in 1964. Her poetry is about blood and revolution, asserting her commitment to speak always through her scars. Over the past eighteen years, the Haggerty Museum has presented a variety of exhibitions to explore the work of multicultural artists and the issues that their art raises. In 1992, the exhibition The Black Family focused on distinctive features of the black family experience, as portrayed by a selection of African American artists. In 1993, the exhibition Songs of My People: African Americans, A Self-Portrait, told the story of the African American experience through the unique perspective of African American photojournalists. Inspired by Songs of My People, the Haggerty conceived the idea for The City Within: A Perspective of African American Life in Milwaukee. This exhibition, presented in 1994, offered a look at Milwaukee Urban life as seen through the eyes and lenses of photographers ranging from ages 12-18, based on their experiences of urban living. The exhibition offered an alternative perspective on urban youth living in Milwaukee in 1994. In 1999, Signs of Inspiration: The Art of Prophet William J. Blackmon, an exhibition exploring the art and ministry of Milwaukeeís leading self-taught painter, was presented at the Haggerty. Blackmonís paintings illustrate biblical passages and address urban and social issues, many of particular importance to the African American community, stressing the centrality of home and family. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Haggerty Museum of Art is presenting a variety of educational programs. An exhibition catalogue, with illustrations of the artistsí work and essays by Jayne Cortez, Eric Priestly, Johnie Scott and Curtis L. Carter, will be produced. The essays will assess this important period of the arts in Los Angeles from 1965-2002. A lecture on civil rights issues in Wisconsin will be delivered by the honorable Vel Phillips. The four artists will be present for conversations with various groups at Marquette University and in the Milwaukee community from January 22-25. Free tours of the exhibition, led by museum docents, will be available throughout the exhibition from January 23 ? April 6, 2003. The Haggerty Museum of Art is located at North 13th St. and West Clybourn Avenue on the campus of Marquette University. Museum hours are Monday - Wednesday, Friday - Saturday, 10 am-4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 am-8 p.m.; and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. Free parking is available in the Mary B. Finnigan Parking Lot (enter on 11th St. through Marquette Lot J).