Fine Arts Society - The ‘New Negro’ Renaissance

The Fine Arts Society will host Archibald Motley, the ‘New Negro’ Renaissance, and the Politics of Representation which will take place at the Peoria Riverfront Museum (located at 222 NW Water St in Peoria) beginning at 10 am.  Featuring Dr. Phoebe Wolfskill will provide background on the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural south to the urban north and how the limits to advancement in the Jim Crow south fueled this movement.  Admission is $12 for adults and $5 for students or free for Fine Arts Society members and are available at the door.  For more information, visit fineartssocieyofpeoria.net This Great Migration, which included Archibald Motley’s family, enabled a sense of optimism and agency among African Americans that resulted in what is called the Harlem or “New Negro” Renaissance. Wolfskill, Associate Professor in the departments of American Studies and African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University, will present photography to contextualize the period, along with an array of images of paintings by Motley and his contemporaries.