The Cooper Gallery

05/05/2021

How are the arts responsible for disrupting, complicating, or shifting narratives of visual representation in the public realm?

In 2019, the Vision & Justice Convening, founded by Associate Professor Sarah Lewis, asked of us to examine just that. The Vision & Justice Project is dedicated to examining art’s central role in understanding the relationship between race and citizenship in the United States. Frieze New York galleries and institutions have organized a multi-institution tribute to Vision & Justice Project and Founder Sarah Elizabeth Lewis through the month of May 2021. The intention of the Tribute is to expand the reach of the Vision & Justice Project and give potential new audiences access to a visual literacy that could change the way they see the world.

Check out the Cooper Gallery's contribution to this powerful tribute in the form of a review of our 2019 exhibition Gordon Parks: Selections from the Dean Collection, co-organized by the Gordon Parks Foundation, which we opened in tandem with the Vision & Justice Convening hosted at Harvard University. We are so grateful to be a part of honoring this groundbreaking project!

Explore the 2019 exhibition at The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art at the Hutchins Center, Harvard University, co-organized by The Gordon Parks Foundation

04/16/2021

Join us for the Final Segment of the Sketchbook Collective

✤ Drawing on Imagination: ✤
Use your creative tools to envision positive change for a more just future. Draw and share your vision of a future filled with new possibilities.

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"I see imagination as a survival skill in times of darkness. In order to survive, we make changes that reconfigure the way we think and the way we act."

'Shifting Contours' is a series of images that deals with spatial re-imagination as a means to cultivate hope and to envisage radical possibilities. By applying warped perspectives and disorientation, I put my body in spaces where I find unrestricted mobility, comfort and sense of belonging. The black and white pictures in the composite photos are images of my childhood apartment and my hometown Hong Kong." - joanna_tam

03/19/2021

❖ Sketchbook Entry #3: Drawing Attention ❖

Join in for DRAWING ATTENTION, our third segment of the sketchbook collective.

In our third segment, we will use our sketchbooks to focus on Drawing Attention as both the main subject and process for drawing.

What injustices need more of our time, attention, response, care, and action?

❖ Process:
Drawing from observation and imagination, we will work in our sketchbooks with processes emphasizing attention such as highlighting, sharp focusing, juxtaposing, reframing, and more.
Use a daily newspaper as the starting point for creating responsive mixed-media drawings in your sketchbook. Explore the newspaper as a surface to draw on, a material to cut out of, and a source for collecting found text and images.

❖ Suggested Materials:
Sketchbook
Pencils or Charcoal
Blending tools such as cotton balls, Q-tips, brushes
Scissors/ X-Acto
Glue Stick
Newspaper and Assorted Papers

Share your sketchbook pages using:

Tag &

03/09/2021

Does making art really matter?
Why do you make art?
How does culture affect how we see art?
Join artist Marlon Forrester in a conversation and meditation on why art, design, and architecture are becoming one.
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About the Cooper Gallery Conversation Club
The Cooper Gallery offers an event series that fosters conversation among artists and audiences and focuses on creating a local community around art in our virtual world.
The Conversation Club creates a space for discussion and distillation, away from the onslaught of the perpetual news cycle, where participants can learn more about art and other topics as a community and gives Boston-based artists a platform to share their work and ideas. Speak directly with a Boston-based practicing artist when you attend our Conversation Club!
Register here: https://buff.ly/3v56mSl

03/05/2021

⭑ Sketchbook Entry #2: Blurring Lines
In our second segment we will use our sketchbooks to focus on blurring lines as the main subject and process for drawing. What dividing lines, boundary lines, or border lines are you experiencing and observing in this moment? Blurring lines will be both our main subject and process for drawing in our sketchbooks.

⭑ Process:
Drawing from observation and moving towards imagination we will experiment in our sketchbooks with processes emphasizing blurring lines and sharp divides such as softening, blending, layering, smudging, and more.

⭑ Suggested Materials:
Sketchbook
Pencils or Charcoal
Blending tools such as cotton balls, Q-tips, brushes
Scissors/ X-Acto
Glue Stick
Newspaper and Assorted Papers

⭑ Share your sketchbook pages using:
⭑ Tag &

The sketchbook collective is an invitation to join in a daily drawing practice of observing, reflecting, responding, and imagining new possibilities. Throughout the eight weeks, we will explore drawings addressing what you see in the world now and what you want to see in the future.
Join us for a habitual sketching practice, multimedia drawing, and bi-weekly sketchbook prompts that begin from a place of reflective observation and move towards imaginative response. Follow along here for bi-weekly sketchbook prompts.

Image by: Gonzalo Fuenmayor
"Exotic Trust", charcoal, ink, spray-paint on paper

02/19/2021

Welcome to the sketchbook collective!

Our first prompt will focus on loss, from personal to public, from local to global. What losses are you experiencing and observing in this moment? What change do you hope to see in the future? Loss will be both our main subject and process for drawing in our sketchbooks.

✦ Process ✦
·Use a daily newspaper as the starting point and source of information for creating responsive mixed-media drawings in your sketchbook. Explore the newspaper as a surface to draw on, a material to cut out of, and a source for collecting found text and images.
·Experiment with processes emphasizing loss such as erasing, cutting, covering, erasing, ripping, sanding, highlighting and more.

✦ Suggested Materials ✦
·Sketchbook
·Pencils, Pens, Markers
·Scissors/ X-Acto/ SandPaper
·Glue Stick
·Newspaper and Assorted Papers

Share your sketchbook pages and perspectives with us using these hashtags:

Tag &

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The sketchbook collective is an invitation to join in a daily drawing practice of observing, reflecting, responding, and imagining new possibilitßies. Throughout the eight weeks, we will explore drawings addressing what you see in the world now and what you want to see in the future.
Join us for a habitual sketching practice, multimedia drawing, and bi-weekly sketchbook prompts that begin from a place of reflective observation and move towards imaginative response. Follow along here for bi-weekly sketchbook prompts.

02/17/2021

There is still time to register for this amazing opportunity to connect with a local artist for intimate conversations about art practice! Join us for our inaugural Conversation Club on Tuesday, March 2nd at 6:30 pm, featuring multidisciplinary artist, L'Merchie Frazier

The Cooper Gallery offers an event series that fosters conversation among artists and audiences and focuses on creating a local community, around art in our virtual world.

The Conversation Club creates a space for discussion and distillation, away from the onslaught of the perpetual news cycle, where participants can learn more about art and other topics as a community and gives Boston-based artists a platform to share their work and ideas. Speak directly with a Boston-based practicing artist when you attend our Conversation Club!

Register here: https://buff.ly/3pygzTs

02/11/2021

Upcoming!: Join in for a Sketchbook Collective, Co-Hosted with (February 18 - April 16 online)⠀
⠀
The sketchbook collective is an invitation to join in a daily drawing practice of observing, reflecting, responding, and imagining new possibilities. Throughout the eight weeks, we will explore drawings addressing what you see in the world now and what you want to see in the future.⠀
⠀
Join us for a habitual sketching practice, multimedia drawing, and bi-weekly sketchbook prompts that begin from a place of reflective observation and move towards imaginative response. Follow along on Cooper Gallery social media for bi-weekly sketchbook prompts.⠀
⠀
Share your sketchbook pages and perspectives with us using these hashtags:⠀
⠀
Tag &

02/03/2021

Join in for a Sketchbook Collective, Co-Hosted with (February 18 - April 16 online)

The sketchbook collective is an invitation to join in a daily drawing practice of observing, reflecting, responding, and imagining new possibilities. Throughout the eight weeks, we will explore drawings addressing what you see in the world now and what you want to see in the future.

Join us for a habitual sketching practice, multimedia drawing, and bi-weekly sketchbook prompts that begin from a place of reflective observation and move towards imaginative response. Follow along on Cooper Gallery social media for bi-weekly sketchbook prompts.

Share your sketchbook pages and perspectives with us using these hashtags:

Tag &

More about :
In the time of a rampant pandemic and racial injustice, how can we draw on our tools to bear witness to the world we are living in and draw on love and justice to imagine a different future?

Drawing on Love and Justice asks us to be observant critical thinkers reflecting not only what we see, but also to imagine seeing what we want to change. It is a call to draw from both observation and imagination.

As we enter a new year, this is a call to artists to draw on their creative tools to speak to injustice and make a commitment to draw on love and justice for positive change.