BIRMINGHAM, AL.- In 1971, the Birmingham Museum of Art acquired a work by Henry Ossawa Tanner, the first by a Black artist to enter its collection. In the decades since, the Museum has worked to build a collection that now spans two hundred years and includes more than 1,000 works by over 250 Black artists—today, one of the most significant collections of Black American art in the country. Opening in September 2026, Roll Call: Two Hundred Years of Black American Art offers a focused examination of this legacy, presenting ninety-nine works that trace the presence, impact, and contributions of Black artists across two centuries. Drawn entirely from the Museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition brings together a wide range of works that illuminate both artistic excellence and the institutional histories that have shaped their inclusion.

“Roll Call reflects both the artistic brilliance of Black artists and the ways a museum collection evolves through intentional choices and community engagement,” said Jade Powers, Hugh Kaul Curator of Contemporary Art. “The exhibition highlights moments when artists, curators, and advocates came together to expand the stories our collection tells.”

As the Birmingham Museum of Art marks its 75th anniversary, this presentation provides an opportunity to reconsider key works in the collection alongside more recent acquisitions, offering a vantage point from which to understand how the Museum’s holdings have taken shape over time.

Spanning artists of the African diaspora—including Romare Bearden, Dawoud Bey, Chakaia Booker, Elizabeth Catlett, Nick Cave, Jeff Donaldson, Robert S. Duncanson, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Sam Gilliam, Joshua Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Edmonia Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Lorna Simpson, and Carrie Mae Weems —the exhibition situates these works within a broader narrative of artistic production and cultural history that is both national and deeply rooted in Birmingham.

Organized in four thematic sections, the installation traces this development across time. The Ground We Stand On centers foundational moments in the Museum’s history, including early and consequential acquisitions of work by Black artists. Subsequent sections expand this inquiry. Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility foregrounds the role of community advocacy in shaping the collection.

In What Freedom Feels Like, artists explore lived experience through a range of visual languages, from figuration to abstraction, offering reflections on daily life, self expression, and political consciousness. The final section, In the Heart of It All, considers the significance of place, with works inspired by Alabama and Birmingham that connect local histories to broader cultural and national contexts.





Together, the works in Roll Call tell a dual narrative: one of Black American art and one of the Birmingham Museum of Art itself. The exhibition invites visitors to consider how a collection is shaped—not only by artists, but also by communities and shared responsibility—and why stewarding this history matters in Birmingham, across the South, and within the larger national narrative.

“The exhibition reflects the cumulative impact of artists, curators, and community members whose decisions and advocacy have expanded what is represented here. It is, in many ways, a measure of how far the Museum has come, and a reminder that this work is ongoing,” said Graham C. Boettcher, R. Hugh Daniel Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication that expands on the artists and histories presented in Roll Call, offering deeper context and scholarship. This new publication offers a comprehensive exploration of every Black American artist represented in the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama’s preeminent collection of art, spanning the early nineteenth century to the present day. The publication, Roll Call: Two Hundred years of Black American Art is now available for presale.

Additional details, including opening programs and related events, will be announced in the coming months.

The exhibition Roll Call: Two Hundred Years of Black American Art is curated by Jade Powers, The Hugh Kaul Curator of Contemporary Art, Birmingham Museum of Art.