New Exhibition Explores the Transformation of Printmaking and the Rise of Black Art at Cleveland’s Karamu House

CLEVELAND (March 10, 2025)—The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is pleased to announce the opening of its newest exhibition, Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community, highlighting the role of printmaking at Cleveland’s Karamu House, one of the best-known sites for Black American culture since its opening in 1915. 

Free to the public, this exhibition brings together more than 60 prints created by Karamu Artists Inc.—a group that included Elmer W. Brown, Hughie Lee-Smith, Charles Sallée, and William E. Smith, among others—exploring the groundbreaking role that the graphic arts played at Karamu House. Visitors can view the exhibition beginning on Sunday, March 23, through Sunday, August 17, 2025, in the James and Hanna Bartlett Prints and Drawings Galleries.

Initially founded as a settlement house in 1915 by Russell and Rowena Jelliffe, Karamu House soon became known for using the arts as a means of encouraging racial integration. Although noted today for its theater program, Karamu housed a printmaking workshop beginning in the 1930s, where artists and community members alike—including a young Langston Hughes—could experiment with various techniques, playing on printmaking’s fundamental accessibility and democracy. 

“Karamu Artists Inc. was one of the most influential collectives of Black printmakers in the 1930s and 1940s,” said Britany Salsbury, curator of prints and drawings. “Although the group is mentioned frequently in histories of the Works Progress Administration and the Harlem Renaissance, its members’ accomplishments deserve substantive attention, and we are thrilled to partner with Karamu House to shed new light on their work. Their pioneering vision of printmaking as a means of connecting artists with communities is more relevant today than ever.” 

“Karamu Artists Inc. came together over a shared interest in the democratic possibilities of the graphic arts,” said Erin Benay, associate professor of art history at Case Western Reserve University and cocurator of the exhibition. “With accessible techniques and inexpensive materials, the artists were able to experiment, explore, and collaborate. That collaborative, community-based spirit continued well into the 1960s and ’70s, when racial unrest brought leading artists, poets, and activists to Karamu House. Although Karamu Artists Inc. had long since disbanded by this time, it inspired a new generation of Black artists in Cleveland and fostered the development of a Black art market in the city. Bound by the belief that art strengthens communities and brings people together, Karamu House is still an active ‘gathering place,’ as its Swahili name implies.” 

While a landmark 1942 traveling exhibition of prints by members of Karamu Artists Inc. highlighted their expression of collective and personal identity, the CMA’s exhibition is the first to situate Karamu Artists Inc. and its innovative use of the graphic arts within the broader context of American art during the 1930s and ’40s, such as the Works Progress Administration and the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance. This exhibition offers a chance for visitors to see the role these artists played in the development of a community for Black art in Cleveland, for which they gained national recognition. 

Karamu Artists Inc. includes works from the museum’s collection as well as important loans from local and national institutions, and is accompanied by a richly illustrated publication, featuring essays by leading scholars of Black American art. 

This exhibition is made possible with support from the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, the Malcolm E. Kenney Curatorial Research Fund, and Anne T. and Donald F. Palmer. 

All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and Margaret and Loyal Wilson. Major annual support is provided by the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm and the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment. Generous annual support is provided by two anonymous donors, Gini and Randy Barbato, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Gail and Bill Calfee, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Joseph and Susan Corsaro, Ron and Cheryl Davis, Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Florence Kahane Goodman, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., the estate of Walter and Jean Kalberer, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, the William S. Lipscomb Fund, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Roy Minoff Family Fund, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Sarah Nash, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, Dr. Nicholas and Anne Ogan, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, the Pickering Foundation, Christine Fae Powell, Peter and Julie Raskind, Michael and Cindy Resch, Marguerite and James Rigby, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, Saundra K. Stemen, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage.

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About the Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 66,500 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. The museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, and performing arts and is a leader in digital innovation. One of the leading encyclopedic art museums in the United States, the CMA is recognized for its award-winning open access program—which provides free digital access to images and information about works in the museum’s collection—and free of charge to all. The museum is located in the University Circle neighborhood with two satellite locations on Cleveland’s west side: the Community Arts Center and Transformer Station.

The museum is supported in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and made possible in part by the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts. The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically. For more information about the museum and its holdings, programs, and events, call 888-CMA-0033 or visit cma.org