NEWSLETTER
Auburn, NY (July 1, 2022) – Syracuse artist Vanessa Johnson has always considered Underground Railroad conductor and activist Harriet Tubman an iconic, legendary hero. When Johnson began her career as a storyteller, she avoided telling Tubman’s stories because she felt she could not do Tubman justice. “It is only in the last couple of years, as I have become more grounded in my abilities as a storyteller, that I have included more and more stories about her life in my performances,” Johnson said.
The same is true of her art. Johnson’s exhibition “In God’s Voice: A Celebration of the Spirituality of Harriet Tubman” includes her first visual artworks honoring Tubman. The exhibit is on display at the Schweinfurth Art Center and the Cayuga Museum of History & Art in Auburn, NY, through mid-August as part of the Emerging Artists Project.
Yet as Johnson worked on those pieces, she heard a small voice ask, “Who are you to think that you can speak for her?"
Johnson is a multidisciplinary artist who has been following in Tubman’s social justice footprints since she was a student at the University of Houston, majoring in political science and becoming president of the Black Student Union. “I had no interest in the arts during college,” she said. “I was an activist!”
A CNY native
A Syracuse native, Johnson grew up on the South Side until the beginning of fourth grade, when her family moved to Camillus. She was interested in music, taking piano lessons from ages 5 to 12, folk guitar in middle school, flute from fourth through 12th grades, and piccolo in high school. After college, she sang with a Houston, TX, all-Black choir and orchestra performing classical music written by Black composers, including Nathanial Dett.
Early in the 1990s, Johnson began writing plays and short stories. She then started creating quilts and mixed media fiber artwork in the middle of the decade, and began performing stories in the late 1990s.
Her social justice work took a different form in 2010 when she began consulting with the newly opened Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation Center in Fayetteville, NY. The center is dedicated to educating people about Gage’s work its power to inspire contemporary social change.
“I designed the Underground Railroad Room and took part in planning how the room presents the history of the Underground Railroad and human trafficking to our audience,” Johnson said. “I continue to consult on the interpretation of that room.”
In 2012, she was involved in the pilot Girl Ambassadors for Human Rights Program, which the Gage Foundation continued the following year. Johnson was director of the program from 2016 to 2021, when she then became artist in residence at the Gage center.
Activism through art
Her dedication to activism can be seen in her work. The Artist’s Statement for “Glory,” one of her artworks at the Schweinfurth, reads: “Black lives mattered to Harriet Tubman. She was a soldier for freedom, a holy and righteous presence in the Black Lives Matter movement of the 1800’s: the Abolitionist Movement.”
Johnson’s statement for another piece, “Lead Me to the Promised Land,” lashes out at those who seek to bury their ancestors’ role in Black enslavement.
“they turn the cries of history into silenced whispers
closed within banned books
so as not to offend the children of a monstrous American
past. present. future.”
Many of her works are autobiographical visual stories, including “The Grandmothers,” a set of two tall, thin chains of fiber pieces festooned with masks, wood, and found objects. Johnson’s statement tells the story of how she discovered her African heritage after she had her DNA tested by the Howard University Genome Project, and how she insisted on opening the letter while on the phone with her mother as they both learned the home county of their mother’s mother’s mother.
“The central theme to the majority of my work addresses women's lives and our hopes, dreams, triumph, and challenges,” Johnson said. “My art also addresses the issues in the lives of African-Americans and amerikkkan racism, and my relationship with my African heritage.”
In her latest body of work, most of which was made between February and May this year, she examines Tubman’s spirituality through the lens of an African perspective.
“Her spiritual connection encompasses the African American community during her lifetime, in the present, and eternally,” Johnson explained. “I chose to examine her life in this way because of my own belief in the transformative power that an awareness of our Ancestors holds in all of our lives.
“She is an honored Ancestor in my life.”
IF YOU GO …
WHAT: “In God’s Voice: A Celebration of the Spirituality of Harriet Tubman,” by Vanessa Johnson
WHERE: Schweinfurth Art Center and Cayuga Museum of History & Art, 205 and 203 Genesee St., Auburn
WHEN: Through Aug. 14, 2022, at the Schweinfurth. Through Aug. 13, 2022, at the Cayuga Museum.
ARTIST TALK: Johnson will give an Artist Talk about her work at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 5, 2022, at the Schweinfurth as part of First Friday festivities. The event is free and open to the public.
ALSO ON DISPLAY: “Excellence in Fibers VII,” an annual juried exhibition from Fiber Art Now magazine that features artworks from all over the world, and “Here/Hear,” a solo exhibit focusing on the erasure of Black history
HOURS: Schweinfurth is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. Cayuga Museum is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays.
COST: $10 per person for just the Schweinfurth or $15 to view all exhibits in both locations. Members, participating artists, and children 12 and under are free.
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Note to editors
High-res images to accompany this story can be downloaded from the following Dropbox folder: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wte1bs17yus7ow1/AAAbo5LqHzl8m9djWYQ9UAsEa?dl=0
About the Schweinfurth
The Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center is a multi-arts center that opened in 1981 thanks to a bequest from Auburn-born architect Julius Schweinfurth. The art center's programs include more than a dozen exhibitions each year and educational programs for children and adults, which feature local, national, and international artists.
For more information, link to schweinfurthartcenter.org.
Contact:
Maria Welych, Marketing Director
Schweinfurth Art Center
315.255.1553 w. | 315.380.6472 m.
mwelych@schweinfurthartcenter.org