Initially the panel was going to be held at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Arts (MMoCA) auditorium to highlight the wonderful exhibition, Ain’t I A Woman, due to close on October 6.  I was there at the opening with crowds of people, including Black people from Madison, Milwaukee, Beloit, and Chicago It was wonderful to celebrate the art and the women artists who created such extraordinary pieces, while it was sad to see that Gee was unable to complete her work due to racism from an Overture employee. No one could have foreseen that months later, MMoCA would join the Madison Overture Center in offending artist Lilada Gee by not protecting the beginnings of her work that was still housed there and that both organizations would refuse to offer an acceptable apology. In conversations within my circles, we note that the attack on Gee and her art was not personal but was because she is a Black woman. If I had gone through the Overture door or exhibited at the MMoCA space, I would have been treated the same way since I am Black woman too. Therefore, the bigger issue is how all Black women artists are treated in Madison.

The Overture has offered trainings to those interested in taking them and the MMoCA director, board president and certain board members have insisted that nothing more needs to be done to rectify what happened. There are MMoCA board members who have resigned. MMoCA is highlighting the exhibition of Faisal Abdu’Allah in an effort to diffuse the fact that Black women artists were poorly treated at MMoCA, including the ones who withdrew their art from Ain’t I A Woman exhibition because of mistreatment.  Examine the history of Blacks and arts in the USA and you will find that both in the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement, Black men artists did not support Black women artists equally. Abdu’Allah’s comfort in showing at MMoCA and remaining silent while his sister artists were badly treated, is nothing new.

When the Overture’s Vice-President of Equity, and Innovation, was recently asked to comment on why the Black Community was not offered an explanation nor Gee an apology, he was silent.  Some of you might remember that Chancellor Rebecca Black came to the Black community at the Urban League of Greater Madison in July 2020, to response to the poor treatment of African American students on campus. She respected our community enough to listen and make promises. Obviously, the Overture Center and MMoCA, in these specific situations, have decided that they don’t need to address these issues of racism and sexism, directly to our community, but if they keep quiet, it will all disappear and Madison will forget. Just offer a few additional Black programs and exhibitions to cover their offenses, but don’t do anything to learn and change. This is a prime example of a city that promotes itself as progressive but when it comes to the real work of dismantling racism and sexism, organizations do as little as possible or put up an open letter stating that the MMoCA director will not change her position nor resign but has the support of her board president. I wonder in her interview for this position, was she asked if she was culturally competent or had the ability or experience to successfully interact with cultures other than her own.

It was in 1998 that a US President, Clinton, offered an apology for the shameful legacy in Africa, including America’s role in the slave trade. This might mean that the Madison Overture Center and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Arts want to wait hundreds of years too before they apologize to the Black community for their racism, sexism, and mistreatment of Black women artists. The panel, Black Women Artist Speak, is checking in, after six months in February, to see what has been addressed and what action plans have been implemented to support Black women creatives in Madison, the city where we live and share our art.