"You, the murmur in the air" by Alejandro Acierto from the "Kayumanggi: Post-Colonial Finipinx" exhibit
East Tennessee State University’s Slocumb Galleries and Tipton Gallery have earned two awards in the 2020 Tennessee Association of MuseumsAwards of Excellence competition for a series of exhibits highlighting diversity.
The honors, which were presented in the budget category of $50,000-$200,000, were the Award of Excellence for Temporary Exhibit and the Award of Commendation for Publication, Book/Catalog/Annual Report.
The TAM Awards of Excellence recognize the projects and accomplishments achieved at museums, historic sites and cultural institutions across the state during the previous year. According to TAM, this year’s competition had over 80 entries that showed creativity, fulfillment of mission, innovation, resourcefulness, commitment to audiencesand an underlying theme of diversity, inclusion and community.
These awards were for the “Diverse and Empowered: Africanx, Latinx and Asianx Art in Tennessee” series of exhibits at Tipton Gallery, organized by the Slocumb Galleries under the ETSU Department of Art and Design. These exhibitions included “Kayumanggi: Post-Colonial Filipinx” and “Ansiedad y Pertenencia (Anxiety and Belongingness): Latinx Tennessee Artists and the World,” co-curated by Karlota Contreras-Koterbay, director of Slocumb and Tipton galleries, and Dr. Felipe Fiuza, director of ETSU’s Language and Culture Resource Center; “Silenced Narrative: Africanx Artists,” co-curated by Dr. Terrell Carter and ETSU alumna Shai Perry; and “Rumors of Necessity: Asianx Artists,” curated by Filipinx artist/musician Alejandro Acierto.
“We are so proud to receive this recognition from the Tennessee Association of Museums,” Contreras-Koterbay said. “We are so thankful to our artists, partners and supporters for their trust, partnership, funding and hard work in developing our diverse and educational programming. The films, panels and community engagement truly prove the significance of the arts in our communities.”
The “Diverse and Empowered” exhibits were funded by the East Tennessee Foundation’s Art Fund, Tennessee Arts Commission Arts Project Support and Arts Build Communities grants, Humanities Tennessee, the ETSU Foundation, the ETSU Student Activities Advisory Committee and various other university departments and organizations.
