Sculptor's 'dream state' work shows 'sense of dignity and power' at Richmond's Black History Museum

RICHMOND, Va. -- Richmond's Black History Museum is celebrating Black History Month in February with two impressive exhibitions, "Visions of Progress" and "Stolen Lives, Dreamed Lives."

Mary Lauderdale, the Black History Museum's director of collections, said Carter G. Woodson started Black History Month in 1926 in Richmond.

Woodson, who is often referred to as the father of Black history, selected, the birth month of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass to honor them.

And each year always has a theme.

"The Arts, African Americans, the Caribbean Americans, the African diaspora and the arts," Lauderdale said. "And so we are really grateful to open up two exhibitions."

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"Visions of Progress" depicts African Americans as they wanted to be seen in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

"What we've done here in Richmond is to add to this exhibition by pulling photographs from our collection, primarily the Browns, and showing African Americans in their finery in the same time period," Lauderdale said.

The other exhibit, "Stolen Lives, Dreamed Lives" comes to Richmond by way of a French sculptor Sandrine Plante.

"These sculptures represent the African diaspora, loss, hope, slavery," Lauderdale said. "And the art is exquisite."

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The museum is collaborating with artist, actor, filmmaker and Legacy Media Institute's Tim Reid.

"It's really about the interpretation of our ancestors," Reid said. "And it has a sense of dignity and power that I had not seen in a lot of sculpture that dealt with the slave era. This group of pieces that I saw, had not only showed the struggle, but it had an inner strength that I had not seen."

Moved by Plante's work, Reid is sharing it. Part of the experience is where the artist gets inspiration.

"I've attempted to sculpt a few times and the difference I find in her work is she doesn't use models," Reid said. "She gets this from what she calls her dream state, which makes it kind of unique. Because she says she interprets the feeling as the dreams of her ancestors. And when you look at the pieces, you can't argue with it."

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Both exhibitions, which are on display at the Black History Museumthrough Feb. 29, serve as a tribute to Black history and what we can learn from it.

"Truth is what I like for people to walk away and the truth of our ancestors," Reid said. "The power, the pain, but also the survival nature that you can see in the faces of these people. These are people who suffered greatly. But in their suffering, they were never enslaved in their minds and in their spirit and in their hearts."