Janeil
The Great Migration © Marcus Akinlana, 1994-95, Elliot Donnelley Youth Center Playlot, Chicago, IL 31’ x 120’ Sponsors: Chicago Public Art Group and Elliot Donnelley Youth Center. All Rights Reserved
Exhibition and Film Series created for Black History Month, Embassy of the U.S.A. Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Curator
Funding provided by the Embassy of the U.S.A. and the J.W. Fulbright Commission
Murals are the heart and soul of community art. They celebrate the power of the spirit and they document stories and people that might otherwise go unnoticed. The fourteen murals presented in this exhibition are a part of the public art movement that grew out of the social and cultural events of the 1960’s and 1970’s. African American artists in particular used the mural to empower themselves and the community. Using the walls along underpasses and on the sides of buildings as their canvases, the muralists literally moved art from the inside out, where it was available to anyone and everyone.