Abstract
“Black Art Digital Humanities” examines Black Art history related digital projects. The essay first discusses the digital exhibition “Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas.” Mami Wata is an early example of a Black art history digital project. The essay then examines newer examples of Black art history projects and how museums are presenting their art from Africa and the African diaspora digitally. It features an interview with Kimberly Henderson, the digital curator of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In addition to this the essay looks at museums that have major African art collections. These institutions are often holding art that is entangled with the colonial history of the museums. Perhaps digital projects can be a part of repatriation or even post-custodial custodial plans. As a whole digital projects can help make work accessible to a wider audience as well as digitally preserve art but these projects need to be approached critically considering the legacy of slavery, cultural genocide and museums coloniality. Digital Black art history projects are also important as they can assist in making Black art history more accessible through digitizing art. Digital Black art history projects can add to the historical and cultural record by bringing art from Africa and the African diaspora to the digital world.
Fiona Rae Brown
INFO657: Digital Humanities