From Invisible to Invincible: Honoring the Art of Color

From Invisible to Invincible: Honoring the Art of Color opened this weekend at Historic Strawberry Mansion in Fairmount Park, and it runs through November 8. It's a group show curated by Maryl Hitchings, featuring twelve regional Black, Latino and LGBTQIA+ artists working in oil, acrylic, watercolor, woodwork, textiles, photography, prints and three-dimensional art. Together, they're exploring invincibility and the Black, Latino and LGBTQIA+ experience.

There's a specific reason this is happening here. The exhibition marks the centenary of The Committee of 1926, the group of women who banded together to mount a sesquicentennial show and took on the restoration of Historic Strawberry Mansion, the largest of Fairmount Park's seven historic houses. The mansion itself dates back to 1789, built by the abolitionist Judge William Lewis. The Committee restored it in 1931 and opened it to the public; it now draws around 3,000 visitors a year and was once home to two abolitionists.

Constance Ragsdale, the first African American president of the Committee, puts the 1926 show into perspective: she says it paid lip service to diversity but failed to treat marginalized groups with dignity. This exhibition is meant to honor the artists of African American, Jewish and Irish Catholic descent who were never given the chance to take part back then. The twelve artists Hitchings brought together—working across those different mediums—pick up where that original show left off.

You'll find the mansion at 2450 Strawberry Mansion Drive in Fairmount Park, and the show runs through November 8.