For Liberation and For Life: The Legacy of Black Dimensions in Art

August 23, 2025–December 31, 2025

“Black art has always existed. It just hasn’t been looked for in the right places.”
— Romare Bearden

For Liberation and For Life celebrates the 50th anniversary of Black Dimensions in Art, Inc. (BDA)—a volunteer-led group of creatives and activists founded in Schenectady in 1975. BDA presents this exhibition in partnership with the Albany Institute, which hosted the organization’s first major museum show—Black Artists in Historical Perspective—in 1976. For five decades, BDA has uplifted the art and artists of the African Diaspora through exhibitions, workshops, and programs throughout New York’s Capital Region, creating vital platforms for Black artists across generations.

Featuring paintings, photographs, film, textiles, sculptures, and mixed-media works, For Liberation and For Life honors BDA’s legacy and looks to its future. This major group exhibition brings together over 60 contemporary New York artists, nationally and internationally recognized artists, and acclaimed historic works, forming one of the largest exhibitions of Black Artists in the history of the Capital Region. The exhibition draws from works loaned directly from artists and their studios as well as NYS Office of General Services’ Harlem Art Collection, the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, and several other institutional and private lenders. Artists represented range from figures such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Roy DeCarava, and Henry Ossawa Tanner, to contemporary artists like Lola Flash and Stephanie M. Santana, and many artists who live and work in the region, including Marcus Kwame Anderson, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, and Takeyce Walter. The exhibition title draws inspiration from Elizabeth Catlett’s powerful statement: “I have always wanted my art to service my people—to reflect us, to relate to us, to stimulate us, to make us aware of our potential. We have to create an art for liberation and for life.”

For Liberation and For Life: The Legacy of Black Dimensions in Art features works by Jamal Ademola, Marcus Kwame Anderson, Romare Bearden, April Bey, Diana Blain Fine, Julia Bottoms, Kwame Brathwaite, Aleathia Brown, R. Guy Brown, Royal G. Brown, Jillian Marie Browning, Michael A. Butler, Raúl Ayala Carasquillo, William PK Carter, Elizabeth Catlett, Mika Chante, Peter M. Clarke Jr., Ja'Deana Cognetta-Whitfield, Cornelia Cole, D. Colin, Miki Conn, Robert Cooper, David Cottes, James Counts, Ernest Crichlow, Stanwyck Cromwell, Margaret Cunningham, Fern Cunningham-Terry, I. Joseph Daniel, Francelise Dawkins, Avel de Knight, Roy DeCarava, James Denmark, Sean Desiree, B.A. DiLella, Emory Douglas, Paula Drysdale Frazell, Robert S. Duncanson, Mikel Elam, Patricia Encarnación, Lola Flash, Raè Frasier, Laura R. Gadson, Tamika Galanis, Daesha Devón Harris, Kim Vincent Harris, Lucia Hierro, Candace Hill Montgomery, Clementine Hunter, Linda Jackson-Chalmers, LeRoi Johnson, Benjamin Jones, Danny Killion, Jacqueline Lake-Sample, Hughie Lee-Smith, David R. MacDonald, Anina Major, Kerry James Marshall, Eugene J. Martin, Barry L Mason, Leita Mitchell, Zanele Muholi, Woodrow Nash, Otto Neals, Nefertiti, Clifford Oliver, Gordon Parks, Curtis Patterson, Charlese Annette Phillips, Tina Raggio, ransome, Stacey A. Robinson, Alison Saar, Stephanie M. Santana, Charles Searles, Yvonne Shortt, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, George W. Simmons, Winosha Steele, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, Taiitan, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Eric Treece, Stephen J. Tyson, James Van Der Zee, Takeyce Walter, Jade Warrick, Pheoris West, Deborah Willis, Fred Wilson, Michael K. Wilson, Paula Wilson, Hale Woodruff, Barbara Zuber, and Elizabeth Zunon.

Artist Bios & Statements

Click here for a PDF of the artist bios and statements.

Black Dimensions in Art, Inc. (BDA) is a volunteer-led group of creatives and activists seeking to address a lack of access and visibility for artists of the African Diaspora, and to encourage youth of African descent in the practice, application, and appreciation of the arts. Energized by the momentum of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements that achieved significant advancements for human rights in America and beyond, BDA’s founders, with the same intensity and optimism, focused their efforts on breaking down the systemic barriers fortified by the art world—pushing to establish the recognition of Black artists' significant contributions to the field, supporting their exploration of Blackness and advocating for the ability to earn a living through their craft. BDA’s mission is to educate the public about the unique contributions of African Diasporic artists within the American art scene and provide opportunities for the names and talents of Black artists to be seen and acknowledged.

For more information, visit blackdimensionsinart.org.

Lead support for For Liberation and For Life: The Legacy of Black Dimensions in Art is provided by

John D. Picotte Family Foundation

Major exhibition support is provided by Times Union, Advance Albany County Alliance, and the Albany County Convention and Visitors Bureau Fund of The Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region.

Additional exhibition support is provided by Miriam Trementozzi and James Ayers.

Season exhibition and program support is provided by Phoebe Powell Bender and Christine and George R. Hearst III.

Albany Institute programs and exhibitions are made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

Photos © Spencer House Studio

Press Release

ALBANY, NY (August 8, 2025)—The Albany Institute of History & Art is proud to present two major exhibitions this fall: For Liberation and For Life: The Legacy of Black Dimensions in Art opening August 23, 2025, and Jacob Lawrence: Three Series of Prints opening September 6, 2025.

Read the full press release here.

In the Press

"Black Dimensions in Art, Albany Institute reunite for massive exhibit" – Times Union

"In 1976, just a year after its formation, Black Dimensions in Art received its first exhibition at a major museum: Albany Institute of History & Art. Forty-nine years later, in the midst of the all-volunteer arts advocacy group’s 50th anniversary celebrations, the two organizations have reunited for the sprawling For Liberation and For Life: The Legacy of Black Dimensions in Art, running through Dec. 31. The exhibition’s curators, artists and BDA members will be celebrating the monumental show at a free reception on Saturday." – Katherine Kiessling, Times Union

"20 Fall Art Excursions Outside New York City" – Hyperallergic

"Honoring the 50th anniversary of Black Dimensions in Art, Inc. (BDA), founded in 1975 by creatives in Schenectady, New York, For Liberation and For Life: The Legacy of Black Dimensions in Art at the Albany Institute of History and Art is a robust and celebratory show — and kudos to Albany Institute for hosting the first BDA museum show in 1976! The exhibition features diverse mixed-media artworks by over 60 internationally recognized artists, including Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, and Roy DeCarava, as well as contemporary artists working in the New York region." – Taliesin Thomas, Hyperallergic

"The Albany Institute of History & Art presents 'For Liberation and For Life: The Legacy of Black Dimensions in Art'" – WAMC

Kayla Carlsen, Miki Conn (BDA founding member), Daesha Devón Harris (BDA board member and co-curator), Jacqueline Lake-Sample (BDA board member and co-curator), and Stephen J. Tyson (BDA board member and co-curator) were live on WAMC's roundtable with Joe Donahue.

"Black Dimensions in Art Celebrates 50 Years of Supporting Black Artists in the Capital Region" – Metroland

"The Albany Institute exhibition includes visual art across all mediums, featuring both BDA founders and younger artists, strengthening BDA's commitment to sharing new artists with the community. 'Choosing artists for our 50th Anniversary exhibition was a challenging but exciting undertaking,' says co-curator and BDA Board Member Daesha Harris. 'BDA has shown more than 400 artists in its 50 years! We wanted to prioritize artists who are actively creating and striving to make a life through art [and] artists working all around New York State, especially those outside of artworld centers.'" – Maggie Aulman, Metroland

Exhibiting artist Royal Brown interviewed by Justin Baker and Marisa Espe for Art Town Podcast.

"Up to Us: Black Dimensions in Art, 1975–Tomorrow" Opens at The Tang

"The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College announces Up to Us: Black Dimensions in Art, 1975–Tomorrow, an exhibition honoring the 50-year history of Black Dimensions in Art Inc. (BDA), the Capital Region’s longest-running Black arts collective. The exhibition will be on view from May 31 through November 2, 2025.

The celebration of BDA’s 50th anniversary continues with the art exhibition For Liberation and For Life: The Legacy of Black Dimensions in Art, which will be on view at the Albany Institute of History & Art from August 23 through December 31, 2025. The presentation marks the organization’s return to the Institute, where its first major exhibition, Black Artists in Historical Perspective I, traveled after being on view at the nearby Schenectady Museum, in 1976."

Images from top: BDA graphic: Summer Marsh [detail], Takeyce Walter, 2023, pastel on paper. Courtesy of the artist. Untitled [detail], Winosha Steele, 2022, oil on canvas. Courtesy of the artist. At Play on the Friendship Rose [detail], Clifford Oliver, 2015, analog photography/digital print. Courtesy of the artist. Catsup bottles, table and coat, Roy DeCarava, 1952-1953, silver gelatin print. NYS Office of General Services, Harlem Art Collection, H77.23.1. BDA members and community in front of the Underground Railroad Education Center. Photo courtesy of Robert Cooper/Black Dimensions in Art. BDA founders and friends at an event in the 1970s, Black Dimensions in Art Archive. Photo courtesy of Black Dimensions in Art.