Black female artists take center stage at Schomburg Center in Harlem

Black female artists are taking the spotlight for the first time in an exhibition of its size at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library in Harlem. 

Opening in September is a new exhibition called "Forging Ahead: Recent Acquisitions." The idea for an all-Black women exhibition came to curators Tammi Lawson and La Tanya Autry when they noticed a gap in their collection: Black women. 

Lawson and Autry set out to fix that, creating an exhibition of photographs, sculptures, collage art, paintings and more from 21 Black female artists from across the African Diaspora. 

The works on display include the late Nona Faustine's "Mitochondria," an intimate photo series chronicling three generations of Black women in her own family and highlighting the power and pain of matriarchs. Faustine passed away in 2025 after a five-year battle with cancer, according to her family.

Although much of the Schomburg Center's work is rooted in our history, curators say this exhibition is a chance to support our present and our future. Many of those featured are working artists from the New York City area. 

Curators say Black women artists need more financial support and press coverage.

"Black women, despite all our obstacles and erasure, we forge ahead ... [Black women artists] need money, they need resources because we're underrepresented across galleries, auction houses and museums," Lawson said. "There was a study that was done, the [Burns Halpert report], and it showed that only less than 1% of museum collections have Black women artists."

Lawson is a Bertha Franklin Feder award-winning librarian and Curator of the Art and Artifacts Division at the Schomburg Center.

The exhibition is open through the end of March 2027, which is also Women's History Month.    

"People should know more than one Black woman artist. Often they can't name one, but they should know several," Autry said. "So, I'm hoping the show is helping push in that direction and will change the world." 

Autry is a former Yale University Art Gallery fellow and the inaugural Curator of Art and Civil Rights at Mississippi Museum of Art. She currently is the Associate Curator for the Photographs and Prints Division at the Center.

Since 1925, the Schomburg Center has operated within the NYPL system as a way to commemorate and honor the achievements and historical contributions of the Black community globally. 

To enter, visitors will need a library card, and any New Yorker can access the original works of Black scholars and artists like Langston Hughes and James Baldwin or check out rare books, artifacts or historical documents on Black history from around the world.

Have a story idea or tip in Harlem? Email Noëlle by CLICKING HERE.