Exhibition Travels to Chicago, Atlanta, and Birmingham, Alabama after Debuting in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania… Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story, the first major retrospective exhibition of the work and legacy of African American artist Charles “Teenie” Harris, will be on view at Carnegie Museum of Art from October 29, 2011, to April 7, 2012.

The groundbreaking exhibition will celebrate the artist/photographer whose work is considered one of the most complete portraits anywhere of 20th-century African American experience. Large-scale, themed photographic projections of nearly 1,000 of Teenie Harris’s greatest images accompanied by an original jazz soundtrack will generate an immersive experience in the exhibition’s opening gallery. Subsequent galleries will present a chronological display of these photographs at a conventional scale, and give visitor access to the more than 73,000 catalogued and digitized images in the museum’s Teenie Harris Archive. The exhibition will offer an examination of Harris’s working process and artistry, and audio commentary on the man and his work by the people who knew him. In addition, the photographs and many of these materials will be accessible on Carnegie Museum of Art’s website.

“Since 2001, our museum has been the repository of the Teenie Harris Archive. This exhibition marks the culmination of a long effort to preserve and document an extensive collection of historically and artistically important images,” says Lynn Zelevansky, The Henry J. Heinz II Director of Carnegie Museum of Art. “We are honored to present this retrospective of a photographer whose body of work gives so much to us.”

During his 40-year career as freelance and staff photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the nation’s most influential black newspapers, Teenie Harris (1908–1998) produced more than 80,000 images ofPittsburgh’s African American community. The photographs, taken from the 1930s to the 1970s, capture a period of momentous change for black Americans. His subjects ranged from the everyday lives of ordinary people to visits by powerful and glamorous national figures toPittsburgh, the nation’s industrial center. From birthday celebrations to civil rights boycotts, the distinctive vision of Harris’s photographs folds into the larger narrative of American history, art, and culture.

The show has been organized by Carnegie Museum of Art staff, working with an advisory committee fromPittsburgh’s African American community that provided direction for the exhibition’s content, themes, and goals. Members of the committee include Dr. Laurence Glasco, Dr. Johnson Martin, Tony Norman, Dr. Ralph Proctor, Cecile Shellman, and Dr. Joe Trotter. Members of the founding Teenie Harris Archive Advisory Committee include Neil Barclay, Oliver W. Byrd, Dr. Laurence Glasco, Charles A. Harris, Gladys Maharam, William Strickland Jr., Dr. Nancy Washington, and Dr. Deborah Willis; and project consultants Paul Messier, Elizabeth Shaw, Dr. Ralph Proctor, and John Brewer. Louise Lippincott, curator of fine arts at Carnegie Museum of Art is project manager for the exhibition and Kerin Shellenbarger is the Teenie Harris archivist.

Charles “Teenie” Harris

Teenie Harris grew up in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, a neighborhood once called “the crossroads of the world.” A serious photographer from the age of 18, he started his professional photographic career in 1937 when he opened a studio and began to take on freelance assignments. In 1941, Harris was appointed staff photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, the nation’s preeminent black newsweekly. His images were disseminated nationally through the Courier, and played a key role in how African Americans visualized themselves.

Like the Scurlock Studio in Washington, DC, James Van Der Zee in New York, and P. H. Polk in Alabama, Harris depicted an innovative and thriving black urban community, in spite of the segregationist policies and attitudes of mid-century America. His images captured daily life in the Hill—weddings, funerals, family portraits, parades, church events, street scenes, graduations—as well as of the great men and women who visited the neighborhood, including Martin Luther King Jr., Paul Robeson, John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lena Horne, and Muhammad Ali. Some of the country’s finest jazz musicians—Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Ahmad Jamal, Sarah Vaughan, and Duke Ellington—were photographed by Harris alongside bartenders, waitresses, and dancing crowds.

The longevity of Harris’s career offers an outlook on historic shifts that took place in the lives of African Americans everywhere. In the era of segregated baseball, for example, Harris photographed two legendary Negro League baseball teams, the Pittsburgh Crawfords (which Harris cofounded in the mid-1920s) and Homestead Grays. Later, when baseball’s color barrier was broken, he photographed African American major league baseball players like Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente along with their teammates. The pride and optimism evident in Harris’s photos of the Double V campaign from the World War II era (victory abroad, victory for racial equality at home), turned to growing moods of frustration and anger evident in images of militant protests in the late 1950s and 1960s. These photographs provide important insights to issues that are still pertinent today.

“Teenie Harris had great empathy with his subjects and a talent for storytelling,” says Lippincott. “His images transcend place. Powerful and personal, they connect today’s viewers with a proud past and a vibrant artistic and cultural heritage. We hope that through this retrospective and traveling exhibition, Harris will be established in the canons of art, history, and photography.”

 About the Exhibition

Nearly 1,000 of Harris’s most striking and iconic photographs will be digitally projected as life-sized images in the opening gallery. The images, organized into seven sections—“Crossroads,” “Gatherings,” “Urban Landscapes,” “Style,” “At Home,” “The Rise and Fall of the Crawford Grill,” and “Words and Signs”—will be synchronized with an original jazz score produced by MCG Jazz, one of the nation’s top organizations dedicated to the preservation, presentation, and promotion of jazz music. A second gallery will feature a chronological installation of small prints of the projected images that will include a referencing system for in-depth exploration of each photograph through a bank of computers and books also located in the gallery. In addition, the computers will provide access to the interactive website that has been created for the show.

At the entrance to the third gallery, a mini exhibition of 12 fine-art-quality 16 x 20” prints selected by 12 experts will be accompanied by their personal analyses of the meaning, significance, and beauty of the chosen images. This gallery will also feature a large-scale map showing the places Harris lived, worked, and photographed and a multimedia presentation called “Artist at Work” that demonstrates Harris’s technical skill and artistic vision, and shows how newspapers and publishers cropped and edited his work in order to tell a particular story. “Artist at Work” marries audio recordings of the stories and memories of Teenie Harris, as told by his family, friends, colleagues, and models, with a montage of projected images relating to their tales.

In addition to an exhibition-specific website, the museum is collaborating with theUniversityofPittsburgh Presson an illustrated book offering new and unpublished scholarship about Harris, his work, and his times that will impact the fields of American and African American art, culture, and history.

About the Teenie Harris Archive

In 2001, Carnegie Museum of Art acquired the Teenie Harris archive from the Harris family and began a multiyear project to preserve, catalogue, digitize, and make the images available on the museum’s website for public view. Few of Harris’s negatives were titled and dated; since the acquisition of the archive, the museum has invited the public to help in the identification of the people, places, and activities in the photographs through a series of museum-based displays of his work, outreach presentations, meetings with oral historians, and online response forms that accompany the continually growing display of images on the museum’s website.

The Teenie Harris Archive Project is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, which designated the archive a “We the People” project in the spring of 2007. “We the People” is an initiative to encourage and strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture. Initial support for the Teenie Harris Archive Project was provided by the Heinz Endowments.

Tour

Following its debut inPittsburgh, the exhibition will be on view atChicago’sHaroldWashingtonLibraryCenter, February–May 2012; the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute,Birmingham,Alabama, August 7–October 28, 2012; and the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library,Atlanta,Georgia, January 20–April 13, 2013.

Publication

A 208-page book on the life and work of Teenie Harris accompanies the exhibition. Featuring a preface by Deborah Willis and significant essays by scholars Cheryl Finley,Laurence Glasco, and Joe Trotter, the book analyzes Harris as an artist for the first time, explores the social and historical context of his photographs, and provides a detailed biography of the photographer. The book includes 100 plates of Harris’s signature work and a complete bibliography and chronology. It is published by theUniversity ofPittsburgh Press in cooperation with Carnegie Museum of Art and will be available for $24.95 in softcover, and $55 in hardcover.

An enhanced CD of the exhibition soundtrack synced to images from the show will also be available for purchase.

Programs

Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story offers a variety of complementary special activities, including an opening gala, a discussion by the exhibition’s advisory committee, a symposium, and gospel concert. Linda Johnson Rice, Chairman of Johnson Publishing Company , which is the publisher of EBONY and JET magazines, and nationally known actor and Pittsburgh native Bill Nunn will preside over the opening gala on October 28, 2011. Revealing the American Story: Personal Perspectives from the Teenie Harris Advisory Committee, to be held Saturday, October 29, 2011, will offer information and insights on the debates, discussions, and discoveries that shaped the exhibition. CMA director Lynn Zelevansky will lead committee membersLaurence Glasco, Johnson Martin, Tony Norman, Ralph Proctor,Cecile Shellman, and Joe Trotter in the discussion with exhibition organizer and CMA curator of fine arts Louise Lippincott and Teenie Harris Collection archivist Kerin Shellenbarger,.

A symposium, History in the Making: Photography and the Daily Life of the City, to be held January 28, 2012, will consider photography and the urban experience, bringing together photography historians Cheryl Finley and Nicole Fleetwood; photographers Melissa Farlow, Richard Kelly, and Mark Perrott (featured in the concurrent exhibition Picturing the City: Downtown Pittsburgh, 2007–2010); artist and landscape architect Walter Hood; and CMA curator of photography Linda Benedict-Jones. On February 26, 2012, Carnegie Museum of Art will present Raising Voices: Community Choirs Gospel Concert, featuring regional gospel choirs in a community concert performed against the background of Teenie Harris’s photographs.

Other programs related to Teenie Harris include Picturing Me, afterschool workshops for middle- and-high-school students that encourage participants to explore their personal goals through photographic instruction and experimentation culminating in an exhibition at the museum. There will also be evening events for young adults and complementary programming atPittsburgh’sAugustWilsonCenter and Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild.

Support

Major support for this exhibition was provided by PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., The National Endowment for the Humanities, and Richard King Mellon Foundation. Support was also provided by The Heinz Endowments and the Virginia Kaufman Fund. Support for the exhibition soundtrack was provided by BNY Mellon. Other generous support was provided by The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Fellows of Carnegie Museum of Art and the Beal Publication Fund.

Exhibition design for Teenie Harris, Photographer has been provided by SPRINGBOARD Design and Brett Yasko,Pittsburgh. Multimedia concept, design, and production is by StoweNash Associates, LLC + Iontank,Pittsburgh. The original score in the exhibition is by MCG Jazz,Pittsburgh. Website design and development is by Night Kitchen Interactive,Philadelphia.

Carnegie Museum of Art

Located at 4400 Forbes Avenuein the Oaklandsection of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art was founded by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1895. One of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, it is nationally and internationally recognized for its distinguished collection of American and European works from the 16th century to the present. The HeinzArchitecturalCenter, part of Carnegie Museum of Art, is dedicated to enhancing understanding of the physical environment through its exhibitions, collections, and public programs. For more information about Carnegie Museum of Art, call 412.622.3131 or visit our website at www.cmoa.org.

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Ms. Johnson Rice, chairman of Johnson Publishing Company, will serve as national honorary chair for the event, which is expected to draw some 450 guests who will enjoy a private tour of the exhibition, live jazz, and a seated dinner.

Bill Nunn will lead the evening’s festivities as master of ceremonies. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Nunn is the son of former Pittsburgh Courier journalist and Pittsburgh Steelers scout Bill Nunn, and is a nationally known actor who has appeared widely on television and in major motion pictures, including Regarding Henry, Spider-Man, Do the Right Thing, and Sister Act.

“Teenie Harris was a pioneer of photojournalism,” said Ms. Johnson Rice. “He artfully documented some of the most significant moments in recent United States history, while capturing the character and rich culture of African Americans in the 20th century. I look forward to celebrating Harris’s legacy in his hometown, with the people who have taken great care to preserve and promote his work, which is truly an American treasure.”

“Teenie Harris worked with my father,” said Bill Nunn. “Harris was an icon, someone who captured so much truth, beauty, and history through his camera lens. I am delighted to be part of this celebration of his work and legacy.”

In 2001, Carnegie Museum of Art acquired the Teenie Harris archive of nearly 80,000 photographic negatives, few of which were titled and dated. Since 2003, the museum has scanned more than 73,000 images, all of which are available on the online collection database. Through outreach efforts, lectures and special events, and three Teenie Harris Archive Project exhibitions (in 2003, 2006, and 2009), the museum has engaged the people of the region, asking for assistance in identifying the people, places, and events in the photographs. To date, 20,000 images include content contributed by the public. The online collection search of the Teenie Harris Archive can be found at www.cmoa.org/teenie/

With support from PNC Financial Services Group and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the exhibition will travel to the Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago in February 2012, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, in August 2012, and the Robert Woodruff Library at the Atlanta University in January 2013.

The October 28 gala at Carnegie Museum of Art is presented by PNC, with additional support from GlaxoSmithKline, ReedSmith, and UPMC.  Also supporting the gala are Ebony, Highmark, and the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Accommodations for gala special guests are provided by Mansions on Fifth. The event will feature live music by MCG Jazz, which also composed and recorded an original soundtrack for the exhibition.

“This will be a meaningful celebration of Teenie’s legacy and a great moment for Pittsburgh,” said Lynn Zelevansky, The Henry J. Heinz II Director of Carnegie Museum of Art.

Advance reservations for tickets gala may be made online at http://members.carnegiemuseums.org/teeniegala. Ticket buyers and those interested in sponsoring the event also may call 412.578.2552, or write to teenie@carnegiemuseums.org.

Tickets are $250 per person, or $500 for Patron tickets. Patron ticket buyers will have access to a VIP reception in the exhibition galleries with exhibition organizer Louise Lippincott, Linda Johnson Rice, and Bill Nunn.

About Charles “Teenie” Harris

Teenie Harris grew up in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, a neighborhood once called “the crossroads of the world.” A serious photographer from the age of 18, he started his professional photographic career in 1937 when he opened a studio and began to take on freelance assignments. In 1941, Harris was appointed staff photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, the nation’s preeminent black newsweekly. His images were disseminated nationally through the Courier, and played a key role in how African Americans visualized themselves.

Like the Scurlock Studio in Washington, DC, James Van Der Zee in New York, and P. H. Polk in Alabama, Harris depicted an innovative and thriving black urban community, in spite of the segregationist policies and attitudes of mid-century America. The longevity of Harris’s career offers a long-term outlook of the historic shifts that took place in the lives of African Americans everywhere. These photographs provide important insights to issues that are still pertinent today.

About the Exhibition

Teenie Harris, Photographer will celebrate this artist/photographer whose work is considered one of the most complete portraits anywhere of 20th-century African American experience. Large-scale, themed photographic projections of nearly 1,000 of Teenie Harris’s greatest images accompanied by an original jazz soundtrack will generate an immersive experience in the exhibition’s opening gallery.  Subsequent galleries will present a chronological display of these photographs at a small scale, and give visitors access to the more than 73,000 catalogued and digitized images in the museum’s Teenie Harris Archive. The exhibition will offer an examination of Harris’s working process and artistry, and commentary on the man and his work by the people who knew him. In addition, the photographs and many of these materials will be accessible on Carnegie Museum of Art’s website.

Support

Major support for this exhibition was provided by PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., The National Endowment for the Humanities, and Richard King Mellon Foundation. Support was also provided by The Heinz Endowments and the Virginia Kaufman Fund. Support for the exhibition soundtrack was provided by BNY Mellon. Other generous support was provided by The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Fellows of Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Beal Publication Fund.

Linda Johnson Rice Biography

Linda Johnson Rice is chairman of Johnson Publishing Company, LLC, which is the publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, and owner of Fashion Fair Cosmetics, a global prestige cosmetics brand for women of color.

Rice has served as Chairman since 2010. Previously, Rice was CEO of the corporation, overseeing its domestic and international business operations. She was named president and chief operating officer in 1987. Other positions Rice has held at the company include vice president and special assistant to the publisher, vice president and fashion coordinator for Ebony magazine, and fashion coordinator for Ebony Fashion Fair.

Rice has implemented several innovative initiatives throughout Johnson Publishing Company, which is headquartered in Chicago and has offices in New York, Washington, DC, and London.

Extending her influence outside of the corporation, Rice serves on the boards of the United Negro College Fund, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Omnicom Group, Inc., Magazine Publishers Association, and Northwestern Memorial Corporation as well as serving on the Women’s and Trustee boards of The Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication Board of Councilors, USC’s Board of Trustees, and the Founding Council of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture.

Rice demonstrates a strong belief in enhancing the future of today’s youth by supporting education initiatives and corporate internship programs, as well as the John H. Johnson School of Communications at Howard University. Through Ebony Fashion Fair, Johnson Publishing Company has raised over $55 million for charitable organizations, with the majority dedicated to African American scholarship funds.

In recognition of her leadership and achievements, the Chicago Sun-Times named Rice among Chicago’s “100 Most Powerful Women” and the “Top 10 Women In Media.” She also received the Women of Power Award from the National Urban League, the Trumpet Award from Turner Broadcasting, the Alumni Merit Award from the University of Southern California, and the Alumni of the Year Award from J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management of Northwestern University’s Black Management Association. Rice was included in Crain’s Chicago Business lists of “40 Under 40” and “100 Most Influential Women.” Working Woman magazine included Rice and Johnson Publishing Company among the “Top 500 Women-Owned Businesses.”

Rice holds a BA in Journalism from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and an MBA from Northwestern University’s J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. She has a daughter, Alexa Christina Rice.

Bill Nunn Biography   

Commanding performer Bill Nunn made his feature debut in fellow Morehouse College graduate Spike Lee’s School Daze (1988), but really etched himself into moviegoers’ minds as a formidable screen presence in his second film by Lee, Do the Right Thing (1989), playing Radio Raheem, whose ever-present boom box is at the center of a fight that leads to his death at the hands of an overzealous white cop, the prelude to the all-out riot that follows (Nunn also acted in Mo’ Better Blues (1990) and He Got Game (1998) by Lee). Though he made his initial mark playing young street toughs on screen, this veteran of the Atlanta stage showed he could use his impressive size for something other than menace with a critically acclaimed performance as Harrison Ford’s sympathetic, high-spirited physical therapist in Regarding Henry (1991). Nunn subsequently has played a variety of characters, including Whoopi Goldberg’s huggable protector Eddie Souther in Sister Act (1992).

His professionalism has made him a favorite of other directors besides Lee. He portrayed a Southern police chief in Bill Condon’s White Lie (1991) (TV) (USA Network), later reteaming with Condon for Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995), and has also acted twice for Michael Apted’s Extreme Measures (1996), HBO’s Always Outnumbered (1998) (TV), Gary Fleder’s Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead (1995), and Kiss the Girls (1997).

Nunn performed as Tim Roth’s adoptive father in The Legend of 1900 (1998), Giuseppe Tornatore’s first English-language feature, released initially in Italy and then in the U.S. in 1999. He can also be seen in Spider-Man (2002), People I Know (2002) with Al Pacino, and the prison thriller Lockdown (2000).

Nunn has also appeared in numerous television pilots and series, including the CBS series Traps (1994) with George C. Scott, the NBC sitcom Local Heroes (1995), and the critically acclaimed The Job (2001) with Denis Leary on ABC. He has appeared on episodes of Chicago Hope (1994), Touched by an Angel (1994) (both CBS), New York Undercover (1994), and Millennium (1996/II) (both Fox), among others.

Media Room for Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story for images and other media-only support materials.

http://web.cmoa.org/teenie-media/

Dr. Laurence Glasco is an author and recognized expert on the subject of black Pittsburgh and on race, caste, and ethnicity in a world perspective. He is Associate Professor of History at University of Pittsburgh, where he has taught African American history since 2009. Dr. Glasco is advising the museum on the firsthand narratives and Pittsburgh Courier content included in the interactive components of Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story, as well as contributing an essay to the scholarly book.

Dr. Johnson Martin is an artist, education specialist, and a consultant for the Pittsburgh Board of Education. He was formerly Director of Career Development for thePittsburghPublic Schools and principal ofHomewoodMontessoriSchool. Dr. Martin is advising museum staff on exhibition design, programs, and curriculum development to engage children and youth.

Tony Norman has been a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette since 1996 and a member of its editorial board since 1999. In his popular column,Norman writes on contemporary popular and African American culture. Responding with a columnist’s critique, he helps ensure the relevance of the project to contemporary audiences nationwide.

Dr. Ralph Proctor is Chairman of the Afrikana and Ethnic Studies Department at Community College of Allegheny County. He formerly served at the college as Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Inclusion. A photographer and collector of African art, Proctor grew up in Teenie Harris’s Pittsburgh community and knew the photographer well. He joined the Advisory Committee in 2008 and is the de facto source for vetting image metadata for the exhibition.

Cecile Shellman is Artistic Director of Visual Arts and Exhibitions at theAugustWilsonCenter for African American Culture. She was formerly Culturally Responsive Arts Education Project Manager for the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education, and has also worked for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Museum, Boston; served as Director of Education for the August Wilson Center for African American Culture and the Hecksher Museum of Art in New York; and as museum education curator and gallery director of institutions in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. A practicing artist, Shellman advises museum educators and outreach specialists on exhibition programming.

Dr. Joe W. Trotter is Giant Eagle Professor of History and Social Justice atCarnegieMellonUniversity and also director of the university’s Center for African American Urban Studies and the Economy.  He is a nationally known expert inUS urban, labor, and African American history. Dr. Trotter is helping situate Teenie Harris’s photographs within the period’s broader American economic and political context. He is contributing an essay for the scholarly book.

Carnegie Museum of Art

Located at 4400 Forbes Avenuein the Oaklandsection of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art was founded by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1895. One of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, it is nationally and internationally recognized for its distinguished collection of American and European works from the 16th century to the present. The HeinzArchitecturalCenter, part of Carnegie Museum of Art, is dedicated to enhancing understanding of the physical environment through its exhibitions, collections, and public programs. For more information about Carnegie Museum of Art, call 412.622.3131 or visit our website at www.cmoa.org.

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Drop-In Tours

Pittsburgh in Photographs
Starting October 29
Fridays–Sundays, 12:30–1:15 p.m.

This tour reveals how Pittsburgh has inspired photographers for generations, beginning in the exhibition Picturing the City: Downtown Pittsburgh, 2007–2010, and followed by an introduction to Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story.

Exhibition Tours and Workshops for School Students

Through special tours and gallery-studio workshops, students can explore photographs as primary source documents, using the exhibitions Teenie Harris, Photographer and Picturing the City. These historical and contemporary images of Pittsburgh engage students in how the visual arts provide a medium to understand and exchange ideas. Professional development workshops for teachers in November and December help prepare them for their students’ visits to the museum, and provide instruction for using online exhibition resources.

Picturing Me Afterschool Youth Workshops

This seven-session afterschool program uses the compelling images in Teenie Harris, Photographer and Picturing the City as catalysts for engaging kids in discovering Pittsburgh’s past and present, and inspiring them to envision their place in its future. Carnegie Museum of Art teaching artists lead participants in photography, art, and writing projects in their communities and around the museum. Results will be showcased in an exhibition and celebratory event at the museum in March, 2012.

Members Preview and Reception

October 29, 2011
9 a.m.–noon
Check email for registration details.

Museum members will have early access to the Teenie Harris, Photographer galleries and light refreshments in the Carnegie Café.

Revealing the American Story: Personal Perspectives from the Teenie Harris Archive Advisory Committee

October 29, 2011
1–2:30 p.m.
CMA Theater; Free

Pittsburghers whose information and insights on Harris and his work were crucial to the exhibition planning process share the debates, discussions, and discoveries that helped shape Teenie Harris, Photographer. Lynn Zelevansky, The Henry J. Heinz II Director of Carnegie Museum of Art, leads a conversation with committee members Laurence Glasco, Johnson Martin, Tony Norman, Ralph Proctor, Cecile Shellman, and Joe Trotter. Joining them is Louise Lippincott, CMA curator of fine arts, and Kerin Shellenbarger, Teenie Harris collection archivist.

Lunch & Learn: Capturing Pittsburgh History—Pictures and Stories

November 10, 2011
10:30 a.m.–1 p.m.
$20 members/$22 nonmembers
Limited to 25 people; call 412.622.3288 to register.

How do you begin to organize a life’s work? In the case of Teenie Harris’s nearly 80,000 negatives and photographs, capturing the history behind the pictures added to the challenge. Archivist Kerin Shellenbarger and oral history coordinator Charlene Foggie-Barnett discuss archiving Harris’s images, collecting personal stories, and making both available in a searchable database. The dialogue continues over a light lunch in the Carnegie Café. Price includes lunch.

Culture Club: Do You See What I See?

November 17, 2011
5:30–9 p.m.
$10; includes museum admission and one drink ticket

A casual happy hour starts the evening, then guests Charlee Brodsky, Cecile Shellman, Linda Benedict-Jones, Tony Norman, and Richard Stoner discuss their choices of favorite Teenie Harris images in the “Artist at Work” section of the exhibition, and why these images are personally meaningful. Happy hour continues, and exhibition galleries remain open until 9 p.m.

offCENTER: August Wilson and Teenie Harris

January 12, 2012
5:30–9 p.m.; theatrical performances begin at 6:30 p.m.
$10; includes museum admission, program, and one drink ticket

The August Wilson Center’s offCENTER program relocates to CMA for this special evening of performance in the exhibition galleries. Join the August Wilson Center Theater Ensemble a pairing of Wilson plays and Harris images. Exchange ideas about these powerful words and images.

Symposium: Photography and the Urban Experience

January 28, 2012
1–5 p.m.
CMA Theater; Free; reception follows

This program brings together a distinguished roster of speakers to consider photography and the urban experience, including photography historians Cheryl Finley and Nicole Fleetwood; Picturing the City photographers Melissa Farlow, Richard Kelly, and Mark Perrott; and CMA’s curator of photography Linda Benedict-Jones. Walter Hood, artist and landscape architect, discusses projects in the works for Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood, a subject of many compelling images in Teenie Harris, Photographer and Picturing the City.

Raising Voices: Community Choirs Gospel Concert

February 26, 2012
4:30–6 p.m.
Carnegie Music Hall; Free; reception follows

Gospel Choirs from Pittsburgh churches raise their voices in a community concert performed against the backdrop of projected Harris images of their churches.

“Bound Together” Book Club

March 1, 2012
6:30–7:45 p.m.
Exhibition galleries

In this monthly collaboration with Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, participants enjoy a casual and thoughtful 15-minute gallery talk in Teenie Harris, Photographer followed by a discussion of this month’s selection, Damn Near White: An African American Family’s Rise from Slavery to Bittersweet Success, by Carolyn Marie Wilkins.

Picturing Me Youth Program Exhibition

March 17–25, 2012
Forum Gallery

Artworks created by middle- and high-school students who participated in the Picturing Me Afterschool Youth Program will be on view during museum hours.

Picturing Me Celebration

March 18, 2012
3–4 p.m. keynote talk by Martha Rial, Carnegie Music Hall
4–6 p.m. reception, Forum Gallery and Museum of Art Lobby

Distinguished photographer Martha Rial, whose photographs of Pittsburgh are featured in Picturing the City, is guest speaker. A celebration of the artistic achievements of Pittsburgh kids who participated in the Picturing Me afterschool program follows the talk.

Cave Canem Poetry Reading

March 29, 2012
7–8 p.m.
Exhibition galleries

Carnegie Museum of Art collaborates with Cave Canem for an evening of poetry reading and conversation led by African American poets inspired by Teenie Harris, Photographer.

Collaborations around town:

Teenie Memories: New Photographs by Rebecca Droke and Bill Wade

November 1, 2011–February 2012

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette photographers Rebecca Droke and Bill Wade follow in the footsteps of Teenie Harris with their present-day portraits and video interviews of 20 people that Harris photographed. A small photograph taken by Harris will be exhibited alongside the contemporary image for a then-and-now contrast. Interviews will share remembrances about the experience of being photographed by Teenie and also about the man himself. This exhibition takes place at the August Wilson Center, 980 Liberty Avenue, Downtown.

August Wilson Center Family Series: TRAINS RUNNING! August Wilson’s Century Cycle

November 12, 2011
11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
$5

Host Mark Clayton Southers and the August Wilson Center Theatre Ensemble present an interactive afternoon full of the stories of blues people that began 100 years ago and continue to the present. August Wilson’s play Two Trains Running is set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1969. Projections of Teenie Harris’s images of Pittsburgh in the 1960s complement the program. This program takes place at the August Wilson Center, 980 Liberty Avenue, downtown

August Wilson Reading Roundtable: The Piano Lesson

December 5, 2011
7 p.m.; Free

The August Wilson Center presents a live reading of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize– winning play The Piano Lesson, set in Pittsburgh in 1936. Teenie Harris photographs of 1930s Pittsburgh, projected in the lobby, complement the reading. Directed by Vanessa German. This program takes place at The August Wilson Center, 980 Liberty Ave, downtown.

Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild 26th Annual Concert Series

Fall 2012; Date TBD

A full-length, musical world premiere based on the original score from Teenie Harris, Photographer and performed by the 21st-Century Swing Band, a Pittsburgh-based jazz orchestra, will be presented as part of MCG Jazz’s 26th annual concert series. The production will capture the essence of Pittsburgh and the “Pittsburgh sound,” complemented by projections of Teenie Harris’s photographs. This program takes place at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, 1815 Metropolitan Street, Northside