September 5th – October 11th, 2025
Organized by Jorge Baldor
Reception: Friday, September 5th, from 5:30 to 8:00 PM
Artist Talks, Panel Discussions, and Musical Performance: Dates TBC
The Gallery at UTA is pleased to present The Gullah Journey: West Africa to Mexico curated by Jorge Baldor, historian, art collector, and founder of the Latino Arts Project. The densely layered exhibition Baldor has organized centers on the centuries-long journey of the Gullah-Muscogo people and their culture – from West Africa to South Carolina enslavement, then escape to Spanish Florida and intermingling with the indigenous Seminole Nation, to forced resettlement in Oklahoma, and finally to freedom and the founding of the town of Nacimiento de los Negros, Mexico.
Part art exhibition, part archival display, Baldor has paired artists working in diverse media with historical documents, maps and artifacts to tell “a story of resilience, culture and freedom.”
The exhibition also includes a selection of oil pastel on paper sketches by renowned contemporary artist Sedrick Huckaby. Having received a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship in 2022, Huckaby visited Mexico over a four-month period in 2023 to work on this series of portraits of the present-day people of Nacimiento that depict a community deeply connected to their history.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Baldor is organizing several associated events including an artist talk by Sedrick Huckaby, a performance by Gullah singers from South Carolina and Nacimiento with a panel discussion, and a gallery talk by the curator of the National Medal of Honor Museum. There also will be a reception on Friday, September 5 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm with brief remarks at 6:30 pm. The exhibition, talks, performance, and reception are free and open to the public.
For information on the Latino Arts Project, and for talk and event dates, see their website at https://latinoartsproject.org.
Gallery Hours: Monday to Friday 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Saturday 12:00 – 5:00 PM.
The exhibition, reception, and talks are free and open to the public.
The Gallery at UTA is in room 169 of the Fine Arts Building, 502 S. Cooper St, Arlington, TX.
For more information, contact Dr. August Jordan Davis (817) 272-2891 or Patricia Healy (817) 272-5658