In celebration of Black History Month, the 1978 Arts Center is featuring “Ancestral Call” with artist Danielle Scott.
Scott, who now works in mixed-media assemblage, spent 20 years as an oil painter but her career shifted unexpectedly in 2018 as she walked the streets of one of her ancestral homelands, Cuba. The walk started her awakening.
“No single medium alone would ever again be enough to express all that the times were calling me to say,” she said in her artist statement. “I was a painter, but I put aside my paintbrush. I needed more than paint. I needed paint and paper, texture and color, objects lost and objects found, metal and cotton. I needed to deconstruct and reassemble. I needed to cut and cover and color and crown. I needed to listen and to learn to speak in a thousand mediums to tell the stories that I now heard all around me, everywhere.”
Introducing her work, in which she used wood and dirt from Africa, she said, “I want you to see it. I want you to feel it. The work has a lot of feeling to it.”
One piece, entitled “Griff,” is a cross and aluminum noose. “The cross represents those being hung by a noose,” she said.
Scott spoke of Angola, the African country with a history associated with slavery. She said, “If I want to tell the story of our ancestors, I want to tell the truth.”
Later, during the reception, she said, “I want my work to speak for itself. I want people to feel me through my work. I want the work to last in your soul.”
Scott’s work expresses politically and socially charged messaging. She was featured in the 2021 Essence Magazine as one of the top LGBTQ artists to look out for. Her work has been acquired by The Newark Museum of Art and The Weissman Family Collection. It has been exhibited at The Monmouth Museum, Morris Museum, Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora, and The Every Women NYC Biennial.
Internationally, Scott’s work has been exhibited in Paris during Africa Week and shown at the 2024 Havana Biennial in Cuba. Scott was an artist in residence at “Chateau Orquevaux” in France; “American Schools of Angola” in Luanda Angola; MECA College of Art and Design in Portland, Maine; and ESKFF at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City.
She was commissioned by the city of Newark to create several public art murals and the Limited Edition Newark Library card. She has received visual artist of the year from ESKFF and Jersey City.
The show at the 1978 Arts Center was curated by Nette Forne Thomas and the opening reception featured live music by Janetza Miranda, who sang a mix of jazz and soul.
“It’s an honor to be here,” Thomas said. “Danielle Scott did a lot of research to be here today. I know the world is crazy right now. But in the room, we’re not.”
Yaisa Coronado was admiring the art and said, “For me, it evokes a lot of feeling. I’m Dominican born. I don’t have the African American experience.”
Diana Tyson from Warren County said, “First and foremost—the technique. It’s not your classic painting. It’s collage. The theme is very appropriate.”
Maplewood Township Committeewoman Deb Engel said, “I was taken with each image. They are all looking at the camera. What are they thinking?”
Her comment referred to the piece of four boys titled “Hatwell, Gray, Bernaby, and Eugene” in which Scott used mixed medium assemblage and resin.
Maplewood artist Sybil Archibald said, “Her work is so profoundly moving. It stops you in your tracks.” Her favorite was “Ruth Afontaine Family,” which was also mixed medium assemblage and resin.
Event coordinator Stacey Ross-Trevor said, “I’m very excited about the event. The music, the pieces. It’s been a pleasure to work with Danielle.”
The exhibit can be viewed at the gallery on Saturdays and Sundays throughout February and on March 1, from 2 to 4 p.m. A closing reception is planned for March 2 from 2 to 5 p.m. The center is located at 1978 Springfield Ave.
For more Maplewood Black History Month 2025 events, visit: https://www.maplewoodartsandculture.org/mbhm
1978 Arts Center hosts ‘Ancestral Call’ for Black History Month added by Maryanne Christiano-Mistretta on
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