Professor Charmaine Nelson Pens Essay on the Extraordinary Life of Artist Mary Edmonia Lewis

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To celebrate Black History Month, UMass Amherst is highlighting Black Americans and the Arts—past, present, and future—by exploring the robust history of Black creativity on campus and how it informs our unique and celebrated arts programming and academics today.

Provost professor of art history Charmaine Nelson fuses the past and present with her groundbreaking research that explores Black history through art. On the heels of her recent $2.65 million Mellon grant announcement, UMass asked Nelson to explore African Americans in the arts in a way that was meaningful in the context of her research.

Nelson chose to profile 19th-century sculptor Mary Edmonia Lewis: a tenacious, extraordinarily talented, and resilient artist often overlooked by art history. Meet Lewis and read the essay.