Until 28 February 2027

Dreams of This Future: The Collection of Peggy Cooper Cafritz

Dreams of This Future brings together a selection of works from the historic gift of Peggy Cooper Cafritz (1947–2018) to the Studio Museum in Harlem, celebrating her legacy as a champion of the arts and her lifelong commitment to artists and their practices. An arts patron, educator, and civil rights activist, Cafritz bequeathed most of her collection to the Studio Museum and to the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, the public school in Washington, D.C., that she cofounded in 1974. Although the Museum has shown dozens of works from the gift since receiving it, this is the first exhibition to tell the story of Cafritz as a collector. A tireless supporter of the arts, Cafritz built two collections in her lifetime. The first was largely destroyed in a fire in 2009; the second was assembled in the seven years before her death. Both reflected her unwavering commitment to artists of African descent. Voracious in her interests, she collected across mediums—paintings, photographs, sculptures, textiles, and works on paper are all represented here—while remaining steadfast in supporting artists from the earliest stages of their careers. She described one aspect of her collecting as a "relentless search for beauty," which "has always been, in part, a political act." Her bequest to the Museum comprised more than four hundred works by over two hundred artists of African descent, many of whom had not previously been represented in the collection. Though the exhibition presents only a small fraction of this generous gift, it seeks to convey the radical act of equity, beauty, and permanence that Cafritz bestowed on the Museum. Artists in the exhibition include Nina Chanel Abney, Derrick Adams, Laylah Ali, ruby onyinyechi amanze, Philip Kwame Apagya, Alexandre Arrechea, Radcliffe Bailey, John Bankston, Sanford Biggers, Diedrick Brackens, Nick Cave, Elizabeth Colomba, Gregory Coates, Noah Davis, Emory Douglas, Derek Fordjour, Hassan Hajjaj, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Kay Hassan, Samuel Levi Jones, Titus Kaphar, Gwendolyn C. Knight, Jas Knight, Marcia Kure, Jerome Lagarrigue, Deana Lawson, Simone Leigh, Nate Lewis, Turiya Magadlela, Mustafa Maluka, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Jackie Nickerson, Arcmanoro Niles, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kambui Olujimi, Chinedu Felix Osuchukwu, Jennifer Packer, Deborah Roberts, Rozeal., Tschabalala Self, Alexandria Smith, Stan Squirewell, Devin Troy Strother, Hank Willis Thomas, William Villalongo, and Saya Woolfalk. The exhibition is organized by Connie H. Choi, Curator, and Kiki Teshome, Curatorial Assistant.

The Studio Museum in Harlem