Augusta Savage: Sacrifice, Social Responsibility, and Early African American Art Education

Abstract

While establishing herself as one of the premier African American sculptors of the 1920s, Augusta Savage began teaching children’s art classes in her basement studio. Later, as the Director of the Harlem Community Art Center, Savage networked with philanthropists, political leaders, and African American artists/performers/writers to discuss how their collective efforts might increase support for artists of color during the Great Depression. Despite challenges associated with racial/gender inequalities, Savage taught some of the most noteworthy African American artists of the 20th century. Although there are numerous studies covering artists of the New Negro Movement, few focus on the concurrent legacy of African American art education. This study discusses the conditions that seemingly hindered Savage as a professional sculptor but defined her as an activist/educator. It additionally examines Savage’s efforts to facilitate opportunities for a future generation with a specific focus on her political agency/social responsibility to African Americans in the 1930s.

Notes

¹ For clarification of the racial descriptors used in this study, I use Black when more inclusively referring to those from the African Diaspora. (Many did not settle in the Americas so African American is not sufficient.) The word Black is also used to describe institutions founded to educate people of color during racial segregation. Although many of these institutions have since diversified, they are still referred to as Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Otherwise, I use both Negro and African American depending on the term used to describe this demographic in its particular historical context.

² William E. Harmon, a real estate developer and philanthropist, established the Harmon Foundation in 1922. The foundation created The William E. Harmon Foundation Award for Distinguished Achievement Amongst Negroes in 1926. The Foundation also sponsored traveling exhibitions of Negro art in the 1920s and 1930s.

³ In 1917, Sears president Julius Rosenwald established the Julius Rosenwald Foundation to meliorate the challenges of African Americans. The foundation offered countless fellowships for African Americans to travel and study throughout the United States and abroad.