Black Power in Print is an online exhibit collaboration between the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and The Museum of Modern Art. The exhibit is currently available through this link: https://www.mfa.org/beyond-the-gallery/black-power-in-print 

Black history and Black artists have often been forgotten and excluded within the realms of academic history and public history as well. Exhibits often tend to lack the voice of the community, many times opting instead for relaying black trauma throughout history. Within recent years many museums and organizations have begun to put the effort into turning over a new leaf with marginalized communities that have been forgotten or actively excluded by the institution. One institution that I stumbled across that is attempting to repair ties with the Black Power Movement is the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The Black Power in Print exhibit only came about when a staff member of the museum stumbled across a document from the 1970s written by Dana Chandler, an African-American artist, and community organizer. Chandler’s proposal “A Proposal to Eradicate Institutional Racism at the Boston Museum of  Fine Arts” criticized and challenged the Boston MFA to work with and support Black artists within the community. After originally receiving Chandler’s proposal the Museum did push them to create an exhibit featuring artwork from Black artists in Boston and New York. But what effort has the museum put into upholding the standards and criticisms placed forward by Chandler, especially considering that the document itself was misplaced within the archives for nearly 50 years.

Images used in the Black Power in Print exhibit gallery mix the ideology of the Black Panther Party with modern art from Black artists to showcase the arts historical context. The image gallery is arguably the strongest section of the exhibit. It is both interesting and the part of the exhibit with the most colour. This section provides more to look at that chunks of text, and the text that does appear is in short digestible paragraphs that provide the further context of the image used. I was disappointed with how short the section was. I would have loved to explore more images and artwork from this time and context, especially with the shorter burst of text rather than the long interviews and articles also featured in the exhibit. The interviews and articles are important to provide information on the history of the Black Panther Party, Black artists, and their relationship with institutions like the Boston MFA, but I often find large bodies of text within exhibits to be difficult to digest and often will go unread by the public who are the target audience. I really enjoyed the exhibit, and understand the power and importance of it, but it is quite likely that I would not have explored it so excessively if I were perusing on my own time. Even the videos created for this exhibit are around an hour long each. The exhibit would be much more accessible to public viewers, as it viewing the entire exhibit requires a large amount of dedication for an online exhibit.

On the other hand, Black Power in Print is most effective as an online exhibit rather than an in-person exhibit since the museum plans to grow the archive and foster further conversations about the topic, insinuating that this online exhibit will be a permanent part of the museum. For an archive that they plan to grow, the digital space allows for more space to add new items and even whole sections to the archive. The image and text format is practical for the project, but as it continues to grow I hope to find more sections that engage that public further.

The exhibit speaks to an important conversation between institutions, like museums, and the communities that have been excluded from access and representation within them. This exhibit could be an example of change over time within institutions to become more inclusive of forgotten and neglected stories in the past. It is important for institutions to understand their place within the harm done to the Black community, and this exhibit states that the Boston MFA understands that. Interviews with members of the community provide new insights into the museum’s past as an institution. The quote below from Dahna Chandler is a perfect example.

Black Power In Print explores and emphasizes the long-standing rift between the Black community and their presence (or lack thereof) in the archival record and within institutions. This project is one that I will continue to keep my eye on in the future, in hopes to see future growth within the institution and new additions to the digital collection.