The Mott Community College (MCC) Fine Arts Gallery in the Visual Arts and Design Center will present an exhibition titled Celebrating a Cultural Heritage: Selections from the Mott-Warsh Collection. The artworks will be in the gallery from Monday, Oct. 14 through Tuesday, Nov. 19.
In addition, Curator/Director of the Collection Stephanie James will give a public presentation about the exhibition and collection on Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 1 p.m. in the Regional Technology Center Auditorium on the main campus in Flint.
The exhibition is part of the College’s two-day commemoration of the 400th anniversary of enslaved Africans being brought to English North America. Poster sessions, presentations, the art exhibit and documentary films will be presented at the Flint campus Nov. 6 and 7.
These events are made possible in part by the Ballenger Trust.
Celebrating a Cultural Heritage: Selections from the Mott-Warsh Collection celebrates the achievements of African American artists and others of African heritage who have contributed to the canon of Western art. The artworks in this exhibit range in dates from 1969 to 2015 and exemplify the diverse interests, media, and artistic approaches explored by artists of the African diaspora.
The exhibit includes work by icons, such as Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, and Betye Saar who have influenced generations of artists that have followed them. The works of contemporary artists such as Mark Steven Greenfield, Wangechi Mutu, Hank Willis Thomas, and Kara Walker reflect present-day ideologies and modes of expression —both representational and abstract.
The Mott-Warsh Collection
The Mott-Warsh Collection (MWC) is a privately owned, publicly shared collection of fine art. It was established in 2001 by Maryanne Mott and her late husband, Herman Warsh, in her community of origin, Flint, Michigan. Their primary intent was to bring art into non-traditional venues where it could be encountered by people as they went about their daily lives. They formed community partnerships with institutions that had an interest in making the collection visible to their memberships, clients, visitors and participants.
The collection contains over 700 works of art primarily by African American artists and other artists of the African diaspora, a term that refers to the forced and voluntary movement of
Africans into the Americas and around the world. Nearly 200 artists are represented in the collection, each covering a wide range of media: drawing, painting, printmaking, photography,
mixed media, sculpture, and video. Today, rotating exhibits of MWC artists can be found throughout Flint, Michigan in the public library, churches, health clinics, colleges and universities, and the MW Gallery located in downtown Flint. The collection also lends to internationally and nationally touring museum collections.
The Fine Arts Gallery is located in room 128 of the Visual Arts and Design Center on Mott Community College’s main campus in Flint, at 1401 E. Court St. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The exhibitions and presentations are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Art and Design office at 810-762-0443.
