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COCA Spotlight: Come home to art with a trip to FAMU’s Foster-Tanner Gallery exhibit

One year ago, when the world was locked down, everyone got very familiar with the great indoors. Aja Roache, director of FAMU’s Foster-Tanner Fine Arts Gallery, appreciated the “creature comforts” in her surroundings. Whether it…

One year ago, when the world was locked down, everyone got very familiar with the great indoors. Aja Roache, director of FAMU’s Foster-Tanner Fine Arts Gallery, appreciated the “creature comforts” in her surroundings.

Whether it was photographs on a mantlepiece, framed artworks or posters, these at-home trappings got Roache thinking about what exactly constitutes an art collection. Her curation for the “Home is Where the Art Is” exhibition at the Foster-Tanner Fine Arts Gallery posits the very same question.

“Often there is an elitism around art collecting and I think people think of it as something only a certain kind of person can do,” says Roache. “I was really wanting specifically to address that it doesn’t matter if you bought it in an art gallery or at an art festival. An art collection can be any sort of creative material in your home that makes your home special.”

Roache emphasizes that this philosophy of art collection was even more vital to her as an educator at an historically Black university, especially when communicating the value of collecting and preserving art to her students.  

“I think a lot of times we feel like we’re on the outside of the art world or what is considered valuable art,” says Roache. “Part of my goal was also to frame that as a Black student and a Black artist, your work is valuable.” 

The exhibit, which runs through April 24, features the collections of FAMU faculty, including Dr. Valencia Matthews, the Dean of FAMU’s College of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities, theatre professor Evelyn Tyler, art professor Harris Wiltsher and TCC behavioral science professor Joshua Johnson.

Read the rest of the story by visiting the Tallahassee Democrat

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