Booth Museum Celebrates the African American Experience in the West

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The largest exhibition of Western art by black artists ever assembled opens December 20 at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. "The Black West: Buffalo Soldiers, Black Cowboys and Untold Stories" features 65 works of art by 16 contemporary African American artists. Visitors to the museum can view the exhibition through March 22, 2009.

"The Black West" is an important and groundbreaking exhibition because it tells the often overlooked story of blacks in the West through the art of contemporary African American artists. In addition to the stories of black cowboys and buffalo soldiers, the art chosen for the exhibition focuses on the complete African American experience in the West, encompassing black explorers, lawmen, rodeo stars, outlaws, and women. The exhibition is co-curated by Booth Museum Executive Director, Seth Hopkins, and "Cowboy Mike" Searles, professor of history at Augusta State University.

Artists in the exhibition include: Gil Ashby (Michigan), Thomas Blackshear (Colorado), Alexander Bostic (Virginia), Eddie Dixon (Texas), Ed Dwight (Colorado), Michael Godfrey (Maryland) , Ed Hamilton (Kentucky), Dean Mitchell (Florida), Bob Snead (Texas), Ivan Stewart (Michigan), Ezra Tucker (Colorado), Bobb Vann (Arizona), Ernest Varner (Georgia), Steven Walker (Ohio), Burl Washington (Texas), and Bernard Williams (Illinois).

Throughout the run of the exhibition, the museum will offer programming on related topics including lectures by artists, writers, and historians as well as dramatic historical performances. Visit www.boothmuseum.org for a complete schedule.

In addition to the fine art on display in the "The Black West," the Booth Museum's Reel West Gallery will feature "Bronze Buckaroos: Mythic Images of the Black West." Featuring 25 vintage movie posters from the Booth Museum collection and the Ron Finley Midnight Matinee Poster Collection, this exhibition explores Hollywood's portrayals of the African American experience in the West. The museum will screen several of the movies advertised in the posters during the run of the exhibition.

For more information on the "The Black West: Buffalo Soldiers, Black Cowboys, and Untold Stories," call the Booth Museum at 770-387-1300 or visit www.boothmuseum.org.

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