HBCUs: Creating Power through Education

The City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs presented  HBCUs: Creating Power Through Education by Synthia SAINT JAMES, on view at City Gallery August 23 through October 6. This vibrant exhibition examines race, privilege, and the power of education through giclees on canvas. City Gallery will hosted an opening reception on Thursday, August 22 from 5:30-7:30 p.m, and an artist’s talk with SAINT JAMES on Friday, September 27 at 1 p.m.

Acclaimed artist Synthia SAINT JAMES presented her first 12 commissioned Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) paintings as giclees on canvas. These works, created between 2011 and 2019, include commissions unveiled in association with the installation of a new university president at several prestigious HBCUs. The California-born, self-taught artist —a Trumpet Award, Coretta Scott King Award, and History Maker Award winner, as well as Honorary Doctorate of Saint Augustine’s University, and the creator of the very first United States Postal Service stamp Kwanzaa Commemorative Stamp in 1997— draws inspiration from her African American, Native American, Haitian and German Jewish heritage in her brightly colored paintings. In HBCUs: Creating Power Through Education, she celebrates the institutes of higher learning, their historic anniversaries, and their inaugurations of presidents.  SAINT JAMES is the official poster artist for the  2019 MOJA Arts Festival.