Dindga McCannon

Dindga McCannon
Born	Dindga McCannon (1947-07-31) July 31, 1947 (age 76)
Nationality	American
Known for	Art, murals, printmaking, teaching, illustration, fiber art, writing
Website	dindgamccannon.world

External videos
“Outspoken: Dindga McCannon, May 7, 2018
The Artist's Voice: Dindga McCannon, Beverly Smith, and Barbara Smith, ICA/Boston, October 16, 2018

Dindga McCannon (born: July 31, 1947) is an African-American artist, fiber artist, muralist, teacher, author, and illustrator.^[1] She co-founded the collective Where We At, Black Women Artists in 1971.^[2]

Early life and education

McCannon was born and raised in Harlem and was inspired to become an artist at the age of 10. She is self-taught and works intuitively. Calling herself a mixed-media multimedia artist, she works at "fusing my fine art 'training' with the traditional women's needlework taught to me by my mother, Lottie K. Porter, and grandmother Hattie Kilgo — sewing, beading, embroidery, and quilting into what is now known as ArtQuilts."^[3]

Career

Dindga McCannon has been an artist for 55 years. In addition to her work as a quilter, author, and illustrator, Dindga considers herself a costume designer and muralist and a print maker. Her work involves women's lives, portraits, and history.

In response to sexism and racism in the art world, artists in the 1960s and 1970s created collectives as a way to fight oppression. In the 1960s, McCannon was a member of Weusi Artist Collective. This is how McCannon became interested in the Black Arts Movement.^[4] The Weusi Collective was interested in creating art that evoked African themes and symbols, as well as highlighting contemporary black pride.^[5] In 1971, concerned to represent her experience as a Black woman artist and single mother,^[2] she hosted the first meeting of the Where We At group of black women artists, a group started with Kay Brown and Faith Ringgold, in her apartment. It grew into a group of women, who supported each other, taught workshops, and exhibited in one of the first group shows of professional black women artists in New York City.^[6][7][2]

McCannon's interest in black arts and women's work met in her creation of dashikis, which then led her to create wearables and quilts.^[4]

In 2015, she was a presenter at the Art of Justice: Articulating an Ethos and Aesthetic of the Movement^[8] conference at New York University presented by the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute in Collaboration with the Department of Art and Public Policy, New York University; Institute of African American Affairs, New York University; and Institute for Research in African American Studies, Columbia University.

Her image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.^[9]

Artworks

McCannon has a quilt (titled "Yekk's Song") in the permanent collection of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.^[10] In January 2020, McCannon's oil painting "The Last Farewell" was auctioned for $161,000 as part of Johnson Publishing Company's bankruptcy proceedings. This work was part of their private collection, which also included works by Henry Ossawa Tanner and Carrie Mae Weems.^[11]

Revolutionary Sister, a mixed-media work created in 1971, was created in response to a lack of revolutionary women warriors. The work depicts a powerful and colorful sister, created in part with items from the hardware store. McCannon speaks about this piece as a Statue of Liberty figure.^[7][12] It is in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum.^[13]

Commissions

McCannon has also been commissioned to create various pieces of art.

• 1985: United Community, 50 ft by 6 stories, 25 Furman Ave, Brooklyn, NY, Dept of Cultural Affairs
• 2000: Amazing Life of Althea Gibson, 60 inches by 120 inches art story quilt, Disney Inc for ESPN Zone, 42nd Street and Brady, NYC
• 2001: Winning the Vote, Art Quilt on the Pioneers of Women's voting history America, Scholastic Magazine
• 2008: Zora Neale Hurston, B.O.S.S. (Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters), Columbia University, NY

Notable works in public collections

Awards

• 2023 – Anonymous Was A Woman (AWAW) - Individual Artist Grant
• 2005 – N. Y. F. A. Fellowship – Crafts
• 2007 – Urban Artists Initiative, Harlem Arts Alliance
• 2008 – Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance – Individual Artists Grant 2009 – Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance – Individual Artist Grant

Books

McCannon has written and illustrated two books. Peaches, published by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard in 1974 and by Dell in 1977, tells the story of a young black girl growing up in Harlem, her life with her family, and her ambition to be an artist.

Wilhemina Jones, Future Star, published by Delacorte in 1980, has a similar theme, with a young black girl growing up in Harlem in the mid-1960s who dreams of pursuing an art career and leaving the oppressive atmosphere of her home.

McCannon has also illustrated books for others: Omar at X-mas by Edgar White (published by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard), and Speak to the Winds, African Proverbs, written by K. O. Opuku (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1972).^[22]

In 2018, McCannon published an illustrated cookbook called Celebrations. The opening reception was held at Art For the Soul Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts.^[23]

Memberships

McCannon was a member of two artists' collectives, Weusi and Where We At (a black woman's collective from the 1970s).^[24]

Further reading

• Richardson, Clem (September 6, 2012). "Community Works teams with a bevy of Harlem institutions to display a quilt of Uptown history and culture". New York Daily News.
• Farrington, Lisa (2011). Creating their own image : the history of African-American women artists (Print book : English ed.). Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199767601. OCLC 712600445.

References