Tribute to Du Bois Being Held at Arthur Ross Gallery

PHILADELPHIA  The Arthur Ross Gallery, in cooperation with the Center for Africana Studies, is presenting Darkwater: Recital in Four Dominions, Terry Adkins after W.E.B. Du Bois, an exhibition celebrating 30 years of African American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, from Dec. 14-March 2, 2003.

Darkwater, a site-inspired exhibition by internationally renowned artist Terry Adkins, is a tribute to Du Bois, a scholar, poet and activist who was awarded a fellowship in 1895 to conduct a research project in Philadelphia's impoverished Seventh Ward. The result was The Philadelphia Negro, one of his most celebrated works.

The shows title comes from Du Bois book Darkwater: Voices within the Veil which was published in 1920 as a companion piece to 1903s The Souls of Black Folk. Adkins examines Du Bois and his work by way of four dominions: sculpture, prints, documents, music and text, all relating to his literary output and contributions.

Darkwater is very much about the process of searching for and creating works of art that speak specifically to Du Bois legacy and to Adkins creative vision, curator Dejy Byrd said.

During a previous collaboration, Adkins and Dilys Winegrad, the gallerys director, talked about creating a tribute to W.E.B. Du Bois which would fuse the artists vision with the Arthur Ross Gallerys interest in giving visual expression to intellectual ideas and its dedication to community discourse through art.

Terry Adkins is an associate professor of sculpture at Penn. Born in Washington, D.C., he holds degrees from Fisk University, Illinois State University and the University of Kentucky and has received numerous awards. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his latest public commission, titled Forevermore, is a memorial to the 1964 shootings on the campus of the University of Mississippi.

The Arthur Ross Gallery is free and open to the public Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.5 p.m., and Saturday-Sunday, noon- 5 p.m. It is closed Mondays.

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Arthur Ross Gallery

220 S. 34th St.

Additional information is available at 215.898.2083 or www.upenn.edu/ARG.

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Postlude, with Robert Wisdom and Tukufu Zuberi, Arthur Ross Gallery, Thursday, Jan. 23, 7 p.m.

Muffled Drums, with James Andrew Brown, Arthur Ross Gallery,

Thursday, Jan. 30, 7 p.m.

Titian, with Sherman Fleming, Tuttleman Auditorium, Institute of Contemporary Art, Thursday, Feb. 6, 7 p.m.

High Priest, Du Bois birthday tribute with special guests reading from Prayers for Dark People, Arthur Ross Gallery, Sunday, Feb. 23, 3 p.m.