On January 24th, James E. Lewis Museum of Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland will open to the public Getting to Grown: A Diaspora Journey Exhibition featuring artists Angela Franklin and Chevelle Makeba Moore Jones. Curated by Schroeder Cherry, Getting to Grown features a mix of textile works, paintings, and collaged images depicting the ways one might navigate life to become “grown.” These works of art highlight moments like, raising families, living abroad, and transitioning loved ones to death. Inspired by the African diaspora, familial memories and lived experiences, the artists use depictions of nature and humanity to speak to the development of their inner worlds as it relates to the changes they’ve experienced in the outer world.
Getting to Grown opens Friday January 24th and will feature a presentation from Morgan’s theater department on Sunday, March 2nd at 2pm. An artist talk is scheduled for Wednesday, March 5, 2025 at 11 AM in the James E Lewis Museum.
Angela Franklin earned her BA in Art from Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, her MFA from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois and a MA in Education Management at Hamdan Bin Mohamed e-University in Dubai. She is a former instructor in the art department at Morgan State University, and has lived and worked in higher education in Senegal, Nigeria, Abu Dhabi and the Marshall Islands. Her works are narrative tales that explore, chronicle, and testify to people of the African Diaspora and their shared experiences and philosophies regarding themselves and other cultures. Franklin has exhibited her works in various national and international public and private art venues including the Art Hub-Abu Dhabi; Musee Boribana, Dakar, Senegal; DAK’Art Biennale National Exhibit in 2018 and the DAK Art Off Exhibit in 2024; the Renwick Gallery-Smithsonian Institution, and the National Afro-American Museum, Wilberforce, Ohio. Since 2020, she has been commissioned to create large-scale works for Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio and Acres of Ancestry, a multidisciplinary, cooperative nonprofit ecosystem rooted in Black ecocultural traditions and textile arts.
