Black Arts Movement Research Paper

The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was a radical art movement that emerged in America during the early 1960s. Black artists from all over the country came together to organise, study and show the art world what the new Black Art is and the development of African-American identity in American politics. This movement inspired many black individuals to establish their own creative businesses such as magazines, books, films and art institutions. It was supported by Historical black colleges and universities (HBCU) to provide more positive and accurate definition of history that has been ignored throughout recent years in the education system. HBCU are institutions of higher education in the U.S. that would serve African-American communities and allow

Many of these institutions hired black writers, artists, and scholars as permanent or visiting staff to help with the students. Various creative methods would be used including music and art to further support the students with engaging in their own cultural background. However, before BAM a weekly newspaper called ‘Negro World’ was established in 1918 by both Marcus Garvey and Amy Ashwood. The newspaper was utilised as a dominating voice for the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League) and allowed readers to receive information of international interest to people of African ancestry. This is another use of medium to help reconstruct lost information within our history and bring black people together. Each issue contained eye-catching titles about black people within the art scene, such as “The Negro in Art: How Shall He Be Portrayed?” and “Criteria of Negro Art”. These forms of art were needed to push black art into becoming more diverse and hard hitting to the white-dominated art

During this period the first National Black Art Convention was taking place in Wolverhampton (Nottingham), as artists from around the world gathered to discuss the form, function and future of black Art. However, the participants at the convention did not agree on the main objective of the movement, therefore resulting in confusion and misunderstanding. These were the options that stood out and were considered: ‘Should an artistic movement be established that corresponded to the nationalism of the black power movement, or should the prime objective be to combat racism? Should it be a struggle for the recognition of the contributions made by non-western artists to international art history?’ (Orlando, 2016, p19). This reveals that even then the term didn’t have a definitive description of what it is and what it stood for. Two years passed, and a second conference took place to consider the art industry's response to the hard social, political and economic realities in which the black community have experienced throughout the years. The convention was arranged by an organisation called Blk Art Group, which consisted of successful artists including Eddie Chambers, Keith Piper, Donald Rodney, Lubaina Himid and many others. The organisation sought to empower black students and artists to express themselves more socially through their practice by