VMFA to receive $45,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for new exhibition

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has awarded $45,000 in Art Works grant funds to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) to support its upcoming exhibition The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture and the Sonic Impulse. This is one of 1,015 grants nationwide that the agency has approved and was part of Art Works, a major funding package totaling $84 million.

“These awards demonstrate the resilience of the arts in America, showcasing not only the creativity of their arts projects but the organizations’ agility in the face of a national health crisis,” said NEA Chairman Mary Anne Carter. “We celebrate organizations like VMFA for providing opportunities for learning and engagement through the arts in these times.”

“The National Endowment for the Arts’ support for The Dirty South exhibition enables the museum to continue highlighting and commissioning work by Black artists,” said Alex Nyerges, VMFA’s Director and CEO. “Though we have been working on this exhibition for a few years it is an especially significant project at this time of historic change.” In 1944, only nine years after opening its doors, the VMFA acquired its first work by an African American artist. Since that time the museum has continued to make strides in diversifying the permanent collection of which the works of Black artists now comprise 39 percent.

Featuring approximately 80 works, The Dirty South exhibition will explore the aesthetic impulses of early 20th-century Black culture as seen in contemporary Black musical expression found throughout the American South. Drawing from the visual imagery found in music videos, lyrics, and cultural ephemera, the exhibition traces the roots of southern Black hip hop to reveal its aesthetic leanings. The exhibition, slated to open in May 2021, will explore the sonic and visual currents that not only influenced today’s music but art over the last century. “The confluence between the visual and sonic arts in Black expression have long been recognized. However, what has remained elusive, particularly in the presentation of these forms, is the long trajectory of this exchange,” said Valerie Cassel Oliver, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and the exhibition’s organizer. “As a native of the South, this is an endeavor that is close to my heart.” The museum is also producing a catalog to accompany the exhibition.

For more information on this National Endowment for the Arts grant announcement visit arts.gov/news.