New exhibit elevates Black women in social justice critique

The idea for the Museum for Black Girls began with a birthday celebration. Co-creator and photographer Charlie Billingsley decided to host a night honoring Black women for her party. 

“I was like, ‘How can I make this night more intentional and interactive?’ and I came up with the name, The Museum for Black Girls,” she said. “My friend owned a boutique at the time, and I took over her boutique and opened the museum.”

Billingsley’s aunt, Von Ross, began helping her develop the idea.

 In October 2023, the pair opened their 16th Street Mall location in Denver. The museum features interactive artwork and serves as “a love letter to Black women,” according to the museum’s website. 

Billingsly and Ross’s new exhibition, “We CU: A Visual Celebration of Black Womanhood, Presence, and Connectedness,” opened on Feb. 9 at the University of Colorado Boulder’s art museum.

The theme of “home” is prominent throughout Billingsley and Ross’s work, exploring the relationship between Black women and the concept of “home.” 

“Charlie and I had a talk about it, and we always say that’s our safe space,” Ross said. “We wanted to give it that home theme because home is where the soul is.”

“Our home is where we’re our most authentic selves. It’s where we create. It’s where we take care of each other. It’s the core of who we actually are because, in other spaces, we don’t get to exist as we are,” Billingsley said.

Billingsley and Ross were chosen by a committee to create the inaugural exhibit for the Socially Engaged Artist-In-Residence program.

Sandra Q. Firmin, the director of the CU Art Museum, and Megan Friedel, the head of collections management and stewardship for the rare and distinctive collections at the university libraries, co-created the program. 

SEARP aims to bring in socially engaged artists from the community who critique oppression and cultural norms in their work. During their residency, artists bring together original art as well as archival pieces from the university libraries’ rare and distinctive collections and the CU Art Museum’s collections to create exhibitions addressing social or political issues.

“We want to support artists who might not be traditionally represented within traditional art spaces,” Friedel said. “(And create) artwork that really pushes a predominantly white institution to think beyond the bounds of whiteness and to recognize that there are so many facets of other histories existing at CU that need equal attention.” 

The exhibit featured works such as “A Seat at the Table,” which was conceived by Ross and Billingsley and designed by artists Eileen Herrera and Kiana Gatling with florals from Black + Blossomed, a Black-owned floral design business located in Denver. The table serves as a symbolic feast in which elements of the table represent the multifaceted roles of Black women throughout history.

“I think people only see us as one thing, which is Black, and sometimes aggressive or angry is what they call us,” Billingsley said. “We are mothers, aunts, grandmothers, CEOs, we are leaders. We are all these things, and so we wanted to highlight that.”

“Love Letters to Black Women,” designed by Ross, is a collection of open envelopes inviting guests to leave a love letter or positive affirmation after seeing the exhibition. Billingsley and Ross encourage guests who visit to both take one for themselves and leave one for a future guest. 

“We never thought the Museum for Black Girls would go this far, from a one-night event… to be able to exist at a museum at CU Boulder,” Billingsley said. 

Though the museum has traveled further than Billingsley and Ross had initially imagined, their goals for the museum have remained the same. 

“Our goal is to elevate Black women and to educate,” Ross said. “We’re more alike than we are different.”

February marks Black History Month. For 2024, the theme of the month is art and the many ways that Black artists have created change through their work. 

“Honoring Black art is amazing to do during Black History Month because our art has so many forms, but that is what propels us forward. That is what shapes our world,” Billingsley said.

In her speech to introduce the exhibition, Billingsley addressed a need to give Black women more credit in spaces where they often aren’t acknowledged. 

 “Give Black women more empathy, give them their flowers,” she said. 

The exhibition will be open through July 13 at the CU Art Museum. 

 

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Greta Kerkhoff at Greta.Kerkhoff@colorado.edu.