Howard University in Washington, D.C., has announced a gift of African-American art valued at $2.5 million from Patricia Turner Walters.
The gift includes more than a hundred and fifty works, including original sculptures, rare prints, photographs, and pieces from notable periods of African-American art and cultural production, including the Harlem Renaissance. Among the artists featured in the collection are Robert S. Duncanson, Edward M. Bannister, Grafton Tyler Brown, Aaron Douglas, Norman Lewis, Romare Bearden, Kehinde Wiley, Barkley Hendricks, and Kerry James Marshall.
The gift was awarded in honor of Walters’ late husband, Ronald W. Walters, who served as a professor in the university’s Department of Political Science for twenty-five years and chaired the department for nearly a decade. To continue Walters’ legacy, the university will establish the Ronald W. Walters Endowed Chair for Race and Black Politics with the aim of spurring interdisciplinary collaborations on critical issues, especially those affecting Americans of the African diaspora.
“I could not be more delighted about the decision to give my art collection to Howard, the institution that my husband cared so deeply about,” said Walters. “I always knew I wanted to do something like this to honor my husband’s legacy, but I never imagined that I would get to see it happen in my lifetime. I am grateful to President [Wayne A.I.] Frederick for working with me to make this possible. I could not be happier.”
