Clarksville, TN – The Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, in collaboration with Crafting Blackness Initiative, proudly presents Embracing Blackness: Diasporic Unions. The exhibition celebrates work by artists of African descent based in Tennessee whose diverse multicultural heritages influence and visualize Black identities and experiences.
Co-curated by Crafting Blackness Initiative co-director Karlota Contreras-Koterbay and Tennessee Craft’s board director Carlton Wilkinson, the curatorial locus revolves around ‘Blackness as Inclusion,’ assertions of the vital reality of Black gazes’ capacity to embrace cultures.
The featured artists include a stellar line-up headed by Clarksville very own master craft artist Ludie Amos, Alice Aida Ayers, Seyi Babalola, Olasubomi Aka-Bashorun, Marteja Bailey, Omari Booker, Brittney Boyd Bullock, LeXander Bryant, Jane Buis, Landry Butler, Bill Capshaw, Gail Clemons, Tina Curry, Samuel Dunson, Kimberly Dummons, Amanda Ewing, Jason Flack, Cynthia Gadsden, Barbara Hodges, Leroy Hodges, Alexis Jones, Henry L. Jones, Ted Jones, Wilson Lee Jr., Dashawn Lewis, Rod McGaha, Hattie Marshall-Duncan, Aundra McCoy, Armon Means, Lester Merriweather, LaKesha Moore, Andrew Morrison, Elisheba Mrozik, Michael Mucker, Althea Murphy-Price, Calvin Nicely, Xander Payne, Christine Roth, Deneen Coleman Ruff, Ashley Seay, Thandiwe Shiphrah, Lorenzo Swinton, Ja Woke Tatu, Betty Turner, Maya Turner, Gary L. White, Ramona Wiggins, Carlton Wilkinson, Donna Woodley, Kevin Wurm with works by influential historical artists William Edmondson, Bessie Harvey, Sammie Nicely, Greg Ridley, and memorial to Alicia Henry.
The exhibition explores the Black identities coalesced around intercultural influences, forged by displacement, interracial unions and various geographic mobilities rooted from Africa across the seas. Participating artists identify as Black creatives as descendants, as they experience living with and being with Black culture that collectively defines Blackness in its myriad ways, a form of resistance to the aesthetic of exclusion, that has plagued the country’s history and social dynamics.
Co-curator Carlton Wilkinson emphasizes, the “Black pigment in the physical definition includes the presence of all colors” as he adds, the combination of “parts of red, green, and yellow will make the color black.” In the United States, a country of migrants borne out of colonial enterprise, its Black people share lineages with many cultures and groups worldwide.
Blacks who identify their lineage from the formerly enslaved groups to labor and academics who came as migrants, refugees or scholars, and those from military service are as many shades and narratives intertwined, made visible, understood and embraced.
As part of multi community engagement activities, Embracing Blackness Panel and performance by Giovanni Rodriguez and Friends are scheduled on July 10th, 2025, First Thursday during the Clarksville Art Crawl from 5:00pm to 7:00pm at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center galleries The Embracing Blackness panelists are Samuel Dunson, Christine Roth, Rod McGaha, Gary White and Hattie Marshall Duncan, facilitated by co-curators Wilkinson and Contreras-Koterbay. The panel starts at 5:00pm to 6:00pm at the Customs House Museum galleries followed by the dance performance from 6:00pm to 7:00pm at the courtyard.
The exhibition is on view until July 27th, 2025, and is part of the Crafting Blackness Initiative, a research-based traveling exhibition and publication project on the 100 years history of Black Craft artists of Tennessee. Supported by the Tennessee Craft, Tennessee Arts Commission, South Arts, East Tennessee Foundation, Bravissima! Women Sponsoring the Arts and various partners through ETSU Slocumb Galleries. Historical works on loan courtesy of institutional partners Knoxville Museum of Art, Trahern Family Collection of Austin Peay State University, Allison and Martha Alfonso and the Carl Van Vechten Gallery of Fisk University.
For more information about the Crafting Blackness Initiative, please visit www.tennesseecraft.org/crafting-blackness/ or email co-director Karlota Contreras-Koterbay at contrera@etsu.edu. The Customs House Museum and Cultural Center is located at 200 South Second Street, Clarksville TN 37040 with viewing hours Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00am to 5:00pm and Sundays 1:00pm to 5:00pm. Please contact the museum for handicapped services accommodations at 931.648.5780.
About the Customs House Museum
Located in the heart of Historic Downtown Clarksville, Tennessee, the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center is the state’s second-largest general interest museum with over 35,000 square feet of exhibit space and houses hands-on activities and special events. Membership and admission information can be found at customshousemuseum.org.
Regular museum hours are 10:00am to 5:00pm Tuesday through Saturday and 1:00pm to 5:00pm on Sundays. Adult admission is $12.00 (18-64). Senior Citizens (65+), Adult Military, CMCSS Teachers, and College Students are $9.00. Children ages 3 to 17 are $5.00, and children 2 years or younger and Museum members are free.
The Customs House Museum is located at 200 South Second Street. For more information, call 931.648.5780 or visit their website at www.customshousemuseum.org
