Alvia Wardlaw facts for kids

Alvia J. Wardlaw (born November 5, 1947) is an American art expert. She is known as one of the top specialists in African-American art in the United States. She works as a professor of Art History at Texas Southern University. She is also the Curator and Director of the University Museum there. This university is very important for African-American artists in Houston, Texas.

Alvia Wardlaw is part of the team that advises the National Museum of African American History and Culture. In 1998, she helped start a group called the National Alliance of African and African American Art Support. She was also the first African American to earn a PhD (a very high degree) in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin.

Alvia Wardlaw's Career in Art

From 1995 to 2009, Alvia Wardlaw was a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. A curator is someone who plans and organizes art shows. She put together more than 75 art shows about African and African-American art. In 1994, she was also a curator for African-American Art at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Famous Art Exhibitions

One of her most famous shows was The Quilts of Gee's Bend. This exhibition featured amazing quilts made by talented quilters from Alabama. It traveled to 11 different cities and broke attendance records at many museums. It was one of the most talked-about art shows in 2002.

Wardlaw has also helped bring attention to important African-American artists. These artists include John Biggers, Thornton Dial, and Kermit Oliver. Their work was not always celebrated enough before her efforts. She also showed her own photographs in different places across Texas. She grew up and still lives in Third Ward, Houston, Texas.

Education and Learning

Alvia Wardlaw has a strong educational background in art history.

• In 1969, she earned her first degree (B.A.) in Art History from Wellesley College.
• In 1986, she received her Master's degree (M.A.) in Art History from the New York University Institute of Fine Arts.
• In 1996, she earned her PhD degree in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin.

Art Shows She Curated

Alvia Wardlaw has organized many important art exhibitions. Here are some of them:

• 2006: Thorton Dial in the 21st Century at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
• 2002–2006: The Quilts of Gees Bend, which traveled to 11 cities.
• Our New Day Begun: African American Artists Entering the Millennium.
• Roy DeCarava: Photographs at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
• Ceremonies and Visions: The Art of John Biggers.
• Homecoming. African American Family History in Georgia.
• John Biggers: Bridges.
• 1995: John Biggers: View from the Upper Room at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
• 2005: Notes from a Child's Odyssey: The Art of Kermit Oliver at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
• 2008: Houston Collects: African American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Wardlaw has also helped explain the art ideas of John Biggers. She showed how his travels to Africa and his love for the African-American community influenced his art. She has also guided many students of color to work in museums, helping them become curators or art conservators.

Books and Articles She Wrote

Alvia Wardlaw has written many important essays and books about art.

• She wrote an essay for The De Luxe Show in 1971. This was a special exhibition that showed art by both white and black artists together.
• She contributed to Handcrafted, an early show at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1972.
• The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room (1995).
• She edited Grant Hill's book, Something All Our Own: The Grant Hill Collection of African American Art (2004).
• Notes from a Child's Odyssey: The Art of Kermit Oliver (2005).
• Charles Alston (2007).
• She also wrote Black Art, Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African-American Art. This book went along with an art exhibition.
• She has written articles and poems for different publications, including The Black Scholar.
• Collecting African American Art: the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (2009).

Awards and Honors

Alvia Wardlaw has received many awards for her work in art history.

• She received a Fulbright Fellowship to study in West Africa (Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Senegal) in 1984.
• She received another Fulbright Award to study in Tanzania, East Africa, in 1997.
• She was a Senior Fellow for the American Leadership Forum in 2001.
• She was inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 1994.
• She received an Award of Merit from the University of Texas at Austin.
• She received the Ethos Founders Award from Wellesley College.
• African-American News and Issues named her an African American Living Legend.
• Texas Southern University named her their Research Scholar of the Year in 2009.
• Her exhibition Black Art Ancestral Legacy was named the Best Exhibition of 1990 by D Magazine.
• The Quilts of Gee's Bend received the International Association of Art Critics Award in 2003.