Portrait of a Community Member
Object Details
- Artist
- Georgette Seabrooke Powell
- Date
- February 24, 1995
- Medium
- Wax crayon and felt-tip pen on paper
- Dimensions
- 35 13/16 × 24 in. (91 × 61 cm)
- Caption
- Bright primary colors animate the sitter in this portrait. The loose style of the black felt-tip pen drawing gives the impression of the woman’s features—such as her round earrings, short, curly hairstyle, and smile—rather than depicting them in exacting detail. The viewer is invited to imagine the elements not clearly seen, and to consider the story behind the sitter. Artist Georgette Seabrooke Powell made this portrait to help local students do just that: consider the stories of people, places, and objects in their community of Anacostia, a neighborhood in southeast Washington, DC. In February 1995, Powell led fourth, fifth, and sixth graders at Lucy E. Moten Elementary School in art workshops where they learned how to depict their community, part of an ongoing partnership between Moten and the Anacostia Museum. In turn, students recorded oral histories and created portraits of community members. Their documentation culminated in the exhibit, Anacostia: Not the Same Old Story. Georgette Seabrooke Powell (1916-2011) was an artist, activist, art therapist, educator, and organizer who moved to Washington, DC in 1959. Throughout her career, she joined and created organizations that allowed her to work collectively with her peers and the public, including the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, the DC Department of Recreation, and Tomorrow’s World Art Center, a nonprofit arts center in southeast Washington, DC.
- Accession Number
- 1995.0007.0001
- Type
- drawing
- See more items in
- Anacostia Community Museum Collection
- Data Source
- Anacostia Community Museum
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Metadata Usage
- Not determined
- Record ID
- acm_1995.0007.0001
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