Museums Use Beauford's Art to Reach Out to Children

The Classes Duo Paris/Knoxville program - a collaboration between the Wells International Foundation and the City of Paris' CASPE 6/14 department - is the largest program to date that has used Beauford's art to engage children. Works selected for lessons during the course of this two-year program included Beauford's Portrait of Marian Anderson, Untitled (Trees), and Greece.

Portrait of Marian Anderson
(1965) Oil on canvas
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled (Trees)
(c. 1945) Oil on canvas
29 1/8" x 23 1/8", signed
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

Grèce
(1967) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Recently, three museums have selected a Beauford Delaney work in their collection to support their outreach to children.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is using Portrait of Marian Anderson as part of a lesson that teaches small children about portraiture as they explore the museum's galleries.

https://www.vmfa.museum/learn/resources/early-childhood-lesson-concept-portraits/

In June 2020, the Brooklyn Museum selected Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit) to create a lesson that provides step-by-step instructions for children ages 2–6 to create offering/honoring bowls and for kids ages 7 and up to create still life drawings.

Untitled (Fang, Crow and Fruit)
(1945) Oil on canvas
25 x 30 in. (63.5 x 76.2 cm)
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art, A. Augustus Healy Fund, and Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund , 2014.73.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esq., Court Appointed Administrator
https://brooklynmuseum.tumblr.com/post/621087915437670400/mini-art-lesson-tuesday-june-16-2020-our-mini

In March 2020, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina was inspired by Beauford's Untitled (1959; shown at the Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color exhibition in Paris) to encourage children of all ages to make "marble prints" with shaving cream.

Untitled
(1959) Oil on canvas
Mint Museum, Charlotte
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
https://mintmuseum.org/abstract-shaving-cream-prints/

This exercise looks like great fun!