As an African-American [AA] artist living Indiana, I have found that barriers against People of Color continue to persist. Over two years ago I was approached by an Assistant Curator of the Indiana State Museum [ISM], located in Indianapolis, IN., and was asked to put together an art exhibition featuring present day African-American artists who live within the State of Indiana. There was an area in the Indiana State Museum called "The Legacy Theatre: The Indiana African-American Experience," that had been designated as a permanent exhibition space presenting cultural events and exhibitions such as, “Heritage Spectrum,” "Written on the Soul," "On the Avenue," and "Major Taylor: His Life, His Legacy." For many years this space had been under used and I asked the Assistant Curator could the "Legacy Theatre" space be used for the proposed inaugural exhibition of contemporary, Indiana AA artwork. She agreed that it would be a wonderful exhibition space and had me continue on with the task of coordinating the proposal, obtaining information, selecting Indiana AA artists, images of their work, etc., and she then took all of the information and created a Power Point proposal presentation which she told me was shown to the Chief Curator, Rachel Perry, who told her that it would be seen by another individual and then presented before a leadership team.


Things went on well for almost two years and then suddenly after all of this time, labor and communication between the ISM and myself, the Assistant Curator began to become not so communicative. She would leave messages, but not return a response. She then started not to respond when I sent her e:mails or left messages by phone. Months went by, communication between the ISM and myself drew to a snails pace, and then out of nowhere, word came that Chief Curator Perry was curating a prestigious first exhibition featuring living Indiana AA artists and was on an intense hunt to purchase artwork, which she proceeded to do. The title of the exhibition, "REPRESENT!" The name of a recent noted 2010 National Black Arts Festival, featured Atlanta exhibition concept. Suprisingly, it featured all of the artists that I had coordinated for the exhibition, several that were verbally suggested to the Assistant Curator and several others of the Chief Curators own choosing that had exhibited in the ISM before. After that, I was told, that they didn't accept exhibition proposals from outside of the Indiana State Museum and "Couldn't understand where I could have gotten the idea."


I felt as if they had purposely led me on for all of this time and now, having what they felt was a dynamic exhibition, decided to throw my efforts away like a dirty used rag. The more that I tried to make amends or an inroad, the less responsive they were to me. They told us that the ISM doesn't exhibit artwork in that space, it was not suitable for exhibition and that they didn't use the space, (it has had a number of exhibitions in it in recent years). I was told that they don't sell artwork at the museum (which they do), it went on and on, and it would have been comical, if it wasn't for the message that these actions carried. I decided to take the matter to the people and was finally told through a major arts organization that offered to intercede on our behalf, that the Indiana State Museum had stated that, "If you want a fight, we are ready!"


There was a lot of passion, time spent focused on doing the legwork, creating the proposal for the ISM, coordinating the artists and meeting with and working with the ISM staff, the whole ordeal lasted for over two and a half years. I simply cannot stand by and let the despicable way that all of this has gone down be swept under the rug, like so many "unjust" instances that have gone on here.


My objective had been to create a venue for artists of color to display their works within the mainstream and to begin to remove some of the stereotypes about AA art and artists, which has traditionally suggested that our artwork has less quality then our white counterparts, and that we are limited in creativity. As an artist who happens to be AA, I truly feel that our artwork should be judged on it's quality, not the color of our skin. This battle has been going on for decades, it needs to be changed now.


I would like for the world to know the truth regarding this matter, this is the kind of discrimination that AA artists deal with in Indiana. This is my story, Please visit my Blog at: http://www.jerospaintingllc.blogspot.com/ for additional content.


I would like to also mention that an exhibition is scheduled to open at the Indiana State Museum in January of 2012 called "Represent," which features all of the artists of color from my original proposal, and several others who were not selected by me. The exhibition excludes myself and one other who assisted my efforts. While the fact that such an exhibition exists in Indianapolis is a good thing, it falls far short of what is needed in this State as well as many others. Other things that came out of my effort was that local AA artists will receive acclaim from this exhibition and have has artwork purchased for the museum's permanent collection. After breaking off ISM communication with me, the Chief Curator suddenly went all over town on an intense purchase search, seeking out AA artwork for their, "New AA Collection."


Something else that became apparent to many AA artists, is that I have been blackballed in the art community in Indianapolis, Indiana. I assume this to be because I dared to respond to and question what I honestly felt was bias. I have accepted this retaliation as vengeance for my efforts to bring the work of AA to light in a State where we are basically ignored. Some Black Indianapolis artists feel that we should keep our art and arts community separate from the White arts community, but I feel that our work is the work of the people and should be shared with the people. While many fellow artists may disagree with me, I BELIEVE THAT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD WILL CREATE MORE OPPORTUNITY FOR ARTWORK THAT IS CREATED BY AFRICAN-AMERICAN ARTISTS WITHIN THE MAINSTREAM. I AM EARNEST IN MY DESIRE TO SEE THAT DAY COMES.