The Kelley Collection

October 1, 2019 - May 18, 2020

All Galleries

Harmon and Harriet Kelley are San Antonio, Texas-based collectors of African American art. Over the last thirty years, the Kelleys have assembled one of the most comprehensive holdings of works by African American artists from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Loans from their collection are frequently exhibited in museums throughout the country. The Colby Museum is honored to have had twelve works from the Kelley Collection on display in our galleries through the 2019–20 academic year.

A collection guide listing the works and their locations, initially available at the Museum welcome desk, can be viewed online here.

The Kelley Collection was featured prominently in the Lunder Institute Research Symposium focused on art by African Americans. John Ott of James Madison University presented on Norman Lewis; Anna Arabindan-Kesson of Princeton University spoke on Edward Bannister; and Tess Korobkin of University of Maryland, College Park discussed Marion Perkins. Those presentations, along with contributions from the scholars Rebecca VanDiver, Tuliza Fleming, Jacqueline Francis, Melanee C. Harvey, James Smalls, Adrienne L. Childs, and Key Jo Lee, can all be viewed at the above link and the embedded videos below.

 

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Banner Image: Edward Mitchell Bannister, Jamestown, 1887. Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection.