Student art on display at Frist as part of Black History Month

An exhibition of artwork by Princeton students will be on view from Monday, Feb. 16, through the end of the month in the Frist Campus Center's 100 level as part of the University's celebration of Black History Month.

The opening of the Jacob Lawrence Student Arts Exhibition is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Feb. 16. Student artists will be on hand to discuss their works. The opening also will include a talk by photographer and art historian Deborah Willis, whose work represents the experiences of being black and female in the United States.

The exhibition is named in honor of Jacob Lawrence, whose series "Migration of the American Negro," depicting the flight of African Americans from the South, became the first work by a black artist to be part of the collection at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1947, at the age of 30, Lawrence was rated "the foremost black artist in the United States" by Time magazine. His work, usually in a narrative series of small paintings, explored racism in America, intermarriage, discrimination in public schools and the progress of the civil rights movement.

The student art exhibition is one of many events planned at the University for Black History Month. A full calendar is available online. For more information about Black History Month events, contact Makeba Clay, director of the Fields Center.