Upcoming Events at The Barnes Foundation
Fri Jun 5, 6:00 PM - Fri Jun 5, 9:00 PM
2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19130
Community: Center City
Description
Take a soul-searching journey with Trinidad-born trumpeter Etienne Charles's Creole Soul as we hit a high note with our first African collection catalogue. Includes a short talk about the catalogue and a book signing.
Event Details
Take a soul-searching journey with Trinidad-born trumpeter Etienne Charles's Creole Soul as we hit a high note with our first African collection catalogue. Includes a short talk about the catalogue and a book signing.
African Art in the Barnes Foundation is the first catalogue of the 123 African objects, most of which originated in French colonies, that Albert C. Barnes acquired between 1921 and 1924. These include significant figural sculpture and masks as well as utilitarian objects. Barnes was one of the first people in the United States to display African objects as art, at a time when they were considered ethnographic specimens. The African collection is central to understanding Barnes’s socially progressive vision for his foundation. His lifelong commitment to the advancement of African Americans and his vision of social justice through education led to his promotion of African art and his early involvement in the Harlem Renaissance.
Etienne Charles has garnered a warm response to his Caribbean roots-informed jazz. Creole Soul, his biggest record so far, promises a career of ebullient and intimate artistry. As befits an artist who excels with such a diversity of musical styles, Charles has performed with a range of musicians, from Roberta Flack, René Marie, and David Rudder to Wynton Marsalis, Johnny Mandel, and the Count Basie Orchestra. The New York Times calls him "one of [jazz's] more ambitious soloists and composers." JazzTimes applauds him as a "daring improviser," and DownBeat celebrates his tone as "melodically captivating" and "rhythmically agile."
African Art in the Barnes Foundation is the first catalogue of the 123 African objects, most of which originated in French colonies, that Albert C. Barnes acquired between 1921 and 1924. These include significant figural sculpture and masks as well as utilitarian objects. Barnes was one of the first people in the United States to display African objects as art, at a time when they were considered ethnographic specimens. The African collection is central to understanding Barnes’s socially progressive vision for his foundation. His lifelong commitment to the advancement of African Americans and his vision of social justice through education led to his promotion of African art and his early involvement in the Harlem Renaissance.
Etienne Charles has garnered a warm response to his Caribbean roots-informed jazz. Creole Soul, his biggest record so far, promises a career of ebullient and intimate artistry. As befits an artist who excels with such a diversity of musical styles, Charles has performed with a range of musicians, from Roberta Flack, René Marie, and David Rudder to Wynton Marsalis, Johnny Mandel, and the Count Basie Orchestra. The New York Times calls him "one of [jazz's] more ambitious soloists and composers." JazzTimes applauds him as a "daring improviser," and DownBeat celebrates his tone as "melodically captivating" and "rhythmically agile."
