Viki Craig loved art exhibitions. She loved promoting Black artists. And she loved quilting.
Some of that love will be reflected next month in The Social Fabric, a show at the Morris Museum dedicated to the beloved arts champion and former Morristown schoolteacher, who died in 2018 at age 71.
Quilts by 27 Black artists will be presented by Art in the Atrium Inc. (ATA), the nonprofit Viki Craig established in 1992 with her husband Charles Craig.
The Social Fabric will run from June 4 through October 2021, filling four viewing spaces in the Morris Township venue.
Bisa Washington and Faith Ringgold are among the showcased artists. Also featured: Works by “lifers” at Louisiana’s Angola Prison, from the Social Justice Collaboration Quilts Project.
And a display will recognize the artistry of Viki Craig, a longtime member of the Bethel Quilters at Morristown’s Bethel A.M.E. Church, where she also led the Sunday school.
“She was the driving force in ATA… she made everything happen,” Viki’s daughter, Lauren LeBeaux, said Wednesday during a Zoom preview for museum members and Art in the Atrium patrons. “It’s her legacy that we’re celebrating.”
Cleveland Johnson, director of the 117-year-old museum, said his mom also was an avid quilter. He expressed hopes that this exhibition will knit an enduring partnership with Art in the Atrium, as the Morris Museum strives to redefine itself for 21st century audiences.
“Institutions that are as old as us, you kind of have two choices, when you’re a hundred years old or older. You can either try to die a graceful death and just kind of fade out with dignity. Or you can decide how you’re going to seize the future and grow and adapt. And that’s what our board has chosen to do, I think very bravely and courageously,” said Johnson, who holds degrees from Oxford University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
He was hired in 2017 to lead a museum mostly known for its Guinness Collection of 19th century mechanical music machines and automata.
Two years ago, the Morris Museum was chosen as the Smithsonian Institution’s sole New Jersey affiliate. The museum is ideally suited to support Art in the Atrium’s mission, “underscoring that this work is really, really important,” Johnson said.
‘NO REASON TO APOLOGIZE’
The Art in the Atrium story began when Charles Craig, an attorney, questioned why he never saw any artworks by African Americans on the walls of the Morris County Courthouse.
So the Craigs created the Art in the Atrium show, an annual gala that fills four floors of the Atrium Gallery in the Morris County Administration and Records Building with works by renowned and aspiring Black artists.
Art in the Atrium has fostered pride–among artists and the wider Black community, LeBeaux said.
“When you have a show like the one we are able to do, you are able to really see yourself. And you can see that there’s no reason to apologize for your existence. Like, we’re here. We’ve been here,” she said.
Art in the Atrium will continue at the county building, LeBeaux said. At times it’s been a rocky relationship. Bold artistic expression has not always sat well with county officials and the judiciary, which operates courtrooms in the Morristown building.
Shelved in 2019, Art in the Atrium was poised for a comeback–under ground rules established by the courts–when the pandemic shut down everything last spring.
ATA pivoted online. Patrons responded, buying $50,000 of Black artworks, via the web and small events, LeBeaux said.
Now, with health restrictions easing, she is delighted to ease back into live exhibitions, starting at the Morris Museum.
“I grew up going to the Morris Museum as a kid. It’s the ‘home museum,'” in more ways than one, LeBeaux said.
Art in the Atrium presented a 2004 talk by the late artist Elizabeth Catlett at the museum’s Bickford Theatre. The Morris Museum also hosted ATA’s 20th anniversary gala in 2012, and its silver anniversary five years later.
ATA will forego an opening reception–COVID isn’t quite vanquished–in favor of a party in the fall, LeBeaux said.
But masked exhibition-goers will find ample space for a safe, socially distanced experience, Johnson promised.
After six months of preparations, LeBeaux said, it’s time to savor The Social Fabric — and intertwine it with the Morris Museum.
“It seems like the right time. Very organic,” she said.