Origins - Explores the origins of African American art during slavery, highlighting secret artistic traditions and acts of rebellion. Focuses on how art helped retain cultural ties.
 

Resilience - Highlights art made post-Emancipation and the Harlem Renaissance that gave voice to Black life experiences and culture. Conveys strength and pride.
 

Protest - Features art related to civil rights, Black Power, anti-apartheid movements, etc. Looks at how art fueled social change.
 

Confronting Eugenics - Provides historical context on eugenics and its impacts. Art challenges its racist underpinnings directly.
 

Diasporic Echoes - Draws connections to the broader African diaspora by including works by Black artists from outside the U.S. Shows universal threads.
 

Breaking Boundaries - Spotlights pioneering contemporary Black artists in the mainstream art world. Focuses on visibility and expanding notions of "Black art."
 

Untold Stories - Shares works that illuminate overlooked or mythologized people/events in Black history through creative lenses.
 

Self-Portraiture - Traces the evolution of Black self-representation as a form of identity, social commentary and empowerment.
 

Cultural Renaissance - Celebrates the explosion of African American art, music, literature and film from the 1960s onward. Shows the breadth of Black creativity.
 

Visionaries - Profiles influential Black arts leaders, educators, gallerists and patrons who paved the way. Tells the story behind the scenes.
 

The Medium is the Message - Highlights works where the artistic medium or form is used in a symbolic way, such as quilts on the Underground Railroad or protest songs during the civil rights era.
 

Faith and Spirituality - Features art inspired by the Black church, gospel music, African spirituality and folk beliefs. Explores themes of freedom, justice and community uplift.
 

The Harlem Renaissance - Dives deeper into this vibrant era for African American arts and culture based in New York during the 1920s. Looks at major works, themes, and leading figures.
 

The Black Arts Movement - Examines this politically motivated artistic movement emerging in the 1960s, which promoted Black pride, empowerment and aesthetics aligned with African American culture.
 

Afrofuturism - Showcases speculative art imagining future worlds, alternate realities and new meanings of "Blackness." Features science fiction, fantasy and magical realism.
 

Sport and Play - Celebrates art representing Black athletes, dance, games and recreational activities as means of expression, cultural connection and community.
 

Family and Community - Features works exploring concepts like kinship, inherited knowledge, childhood, and cultural continuity. Reveals art's role in community-building.
 

From Slavery to Freedom - Traces the arc of Black history from the traumas of slavery to expressions of joy, creativity and liberation post-Emancipation.
 

The Black Experience - Captures "slice of life" scenes of Black culture, from intimate domestic scenes to public spaces and social functions.