Black Art Library

Opening Reception: June 20, 6 – 8 p.m.
On View: June 21 — August 3, 2024

The Black Art Library is a collection of books and other art history ephemera on Black visual art intended to be an educational resource to share within the Black community and beyond. The library intends to introduce or expand the community’s knowledge of Black art from the past and the present through art books. For Stamps Gallery, independent curator and organizer of the Black Art Library Asmaa Walton has curated a special selection of books that focus on black women artists as well as Black artists from Southeast Michigan. 

About the curator:

Asmaa Walton was born and raised in Detroit, she is an arts educator and ardent developer of a Black cultural archive. In 2017, Walton earned a BFA in Art Education from Michigan State University. In 2018, she received a MA in Art Politics from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. After completing her masters degree, Walton joined Toledo Museum of Art as an Education and Engagement Intern, in 2018. In the same year she was appointed the Museum’s first KeyBank Fellow in Diversity Leadership, a position where she identified opportunities for diversity and equity programming across museums and cultural institutions. In 2019, Walton was appointed Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellow at Saint Louis Art Museum. In 2020, Walton established Black Art Library which is a collection of publications, exhibition catalogs and theoretical texts about Black art and visual culture. Walton is currently working towards the mobile project becoming a public archive in a permanent space in Detroit, Michigan.