Through its collections grant program, the Terra Foundation supported the Brooklyn Museum’s Toward Joy: New Frameworks for American Art, a multi-year project that questions traditional approaches to collection interpretation and display, while creating a new path for collections of American art in the future. The reinstallation foregrounds the people, histories, and themes that have traditionally been obscured by dominant national narratives, drawing especially on Black feminist approaches to institutional critique and inclusive space-making.
The presentation, which features eight newly installed galleries, includes over 400 paintings, sculptures, regalia, decorative arts, and works on paper, as well as audio and video interpretations of music and dance. A lobby and introductory space welcome visitors by raising two questions essential to the exhibition: “What should American art be?” and “How might American art be experienced at this moment?” Prior to receiving support for the reinstallation, the Brooklyn Museum received a planning grant through the foundation’s collections grant program to help with the research and development phases of the project. The museum convened a Black Feminist Roundtable made up of scholars, artists, and curators to review, assess, and provide feedback on the reinstallation frameworks.
Stephanie Sparling Williams, the museum’s Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, co-curated the project alongside a team of seven other curators. Sparling Williams discusses the project’s importance and its potential impact on the field of American art in an op-ed essay published in The Art Newspaper on October 4, 2024.
Take a guided exploration of the galleries with Stephanie Sparling Williams through the Brooklyn Museum’s audio guide.
