“A Tale of Two Collections,” the third joint exhibition between the Mississippi Museum of Art and Tougaloo College under the Arts and Civil Rights Initiative, is on view until June 16, 2019. The show includes works by artists represented in both collections, sheds light on the decades-long collaborative relationship between the two institutions as well as the practice of building separate collections for separate, segregated audiences during the 20th century.

The Mississippi Museum of Art and Tougaloo College present A Tale of Two Collections, the third joint exhibition in its Arts and Civil Rights Initiative, a partnership between the Museum and the College that leverages the art collections of both institutions to foster community dialogue and interpretation about civil rights issues, past and present.

A Tale of Two Collections was organized by Dr. Redell Hearn, Curator of Art and Civil Rights for the Museum and the College.

“This exhibition offers one chapter in the visual story of how the Museum and the College have maintained a decades-long relationship centered on sharing their art collections,” said Dr. Hearn.

By showcasing works from eight artists held in both collections—Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Marie Hull, Hale Woodruff, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Benny Andrews, and Thomas Eloby, along with two of the earliest working artists representing each collection, Robert Seldon Duncanson and Heppie EnEarl Wicks—the exhibition highlights works that are complementary in artist, and in some cases subject matter, despite being acquired during a period of time when the boundaries that separated segments of the local art community along lines of race were clearly defined and vehemently maintained—the 1960s.

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