More thoughts about a possible Teenie Harris Museum

A few more thoughts about what a Teenie Harris museum might look like and what it's purpose and programing might be. I am hardly an expert on either African American; Pittsburgh or larger issues of urban history. I also don't know that much about photographic history, so one can take these ideas as food for thought.

The Teenie Harris archive seems to show how little most of the public knows about it's own past. It often raises more questions than answers.

Luckily, Pittsburgh already has one of the best possible models of a stand alone museum of a single artist, that both documents that artist's work and places it in a continuing living context of shows involving others.

First, an idea of the show's success.

Coverage or reviews appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Art Daily, The Daily Mail, Time Magazine, The Cleveland Plain Dealer and National Public Radio. An AP story on the show was published in 300 papers across the country.

From The Post Gazette

"Overall museum attendance was up last year over the previous year, said Jonathan Gaugler, Carnegie media relations manager, with "huge spikes over the holidays and after Teenie opened." It's also been "way ahead for the year" to date compared with last year at this time. African-American attendance has approximately doubled, he said. Counts for individual shows are difficult to tally because admission numbers include Natural History Museum visitors, but attendance on March evenings, free through a Jack Buncher Foundation grant, gives some idea, escalating from 1,082 early on to 1,665 last week.

.......

"Several hundred comments including identifications and stories have been left in the galleries, some of which are periodically posted on the Carnegie website (click on Information and scroll to What's New). "People write, 'This was my mother, my grandmother, I was the flower girl in this wedding.' They tell heartwarming and heartwrenching stories,"

This brings me to the first concrete reason a permanent space needs to exist, which is to capture the memories of the people who lived in and knew these communities while they are still here.

Museum programing

Of course the primary focus of the museum will be the exploration of Teenie's work, but like the Warhol, it will be very important to do more. Harris may be growing into a Pittsburgh legend, but he is still not very well known outside of town. The Westmoreland and recent Carnegie Museum shows garnered lots of national press, most of which faded very fast. Since he stayed in Pittsburgh and his full archive was left here, too few scholars have had a chance to put his work in perspective.

Part of the problem is that the vast rich world Harris shows us, now seems almost unbelievable. James Van Der Zee took staged pictures of a small slice, of Harlem's intellectual and social elite. Harris, shows the amazing social capital that existed from top to bottom --corner stores, bars, clubs, schools, sports- the famous, the struggling and the striving.

A major goal of the museum is to explore other urban photographers and journalists and try to get a fuller and more realistic picture of what was really going on in America's "working class" neighborhoods. The Teenie Harris Museum would explore urban. African American and photographic history.

The case for a Teenie Harris Museum: A forum for urban history

Well, the Teenie Harris show, I gave a tepid review for, (wishing for a larger selection of full scale prints) really grew in my heart and soul. I went back three times and now wish I had gone more often.

The good news is it will tour. It also, became a pretty huge hit in town and garnered a lot of national and international press.

A reduced version of the exhibition will travel to the Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago (February 4–June 4 2012); the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (August 7–October 28, 2012); and the Robert Woodruff Library at the Atlanta University Center (January 20–April 13, 2013).

The bad news is that the show will be edited down and isn't scheduled for high profile venues like The Smithsonian, ICP or any major museum.

The online archive continues to grow and be enriched with more personal stories and info.

More than one writer grasped the historic importance of this huge collection of pictures documenting a community.

The Big Legacy Of Charles 'Teenie' Harris, Photographer

The black and white images captured by Charles 'Teenie' Harris that re-tell the musical history of black America in the 20th Century

I think the Harris archive is almost without equal as an extensive, in depth portrait of American life. His 50,000 photos are not made up of many pictures of the same moments, but capture almost 50,000 separate, distinct people, places and events.

Harris didn't just record crime scenes or fashionably dressed people or jazz performances or sports or staged portraits or interesting buildings or pictures meant to advocate a political or social agenda. From his work we get a full idea of a lost time and place. As full an idea as one person could ever provide.

Of course, the time and place is one of endless interest. What happened to the thriving, beautiful, dynamic community he captured? Sadly, no similar record exists of The Grand Concourse, Newark's Central Ward or even of Harlem itself in it's glory days.

So many questions and so many possible points of discussion. In my opinion, Pittsburgh really needs a stand alone museum of Harris's work. My hope is it would become a center for not just African American, but all urban history.

Teenie Harris Images "re-tell the musical history of black America in the 20th Century"

Wow! another knoockout story on Teenie Harris, focusing on shots of the incredible lost music scene in The Hill. Many of these shots taken in the Hill, but also at locations like Oakland's Syria Mosque. Other shots were taken at Harlem venues like The Savoy Ballroom.

Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters, Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, Earl 'Fatha' Hines, Erroll Garner, Billy Eckstine, Roy Eldridge, Honey Gun band, The Ink Spots, Mary Lou Williams, Eartha Kitt, Nina Simone, Art Blakey, Billy Strayhorn

From the UK's Daily Mail

Video compilation of Teenie Harris profiles in the national media

The Westmoreland Museum, which hosted a earlier Harris retrospective, uploaded a montage, highlighting some of the attention paid to Harris and the communities he photographed. Almost all of them are really well done, so don't just skip through it.

Seems like many were done during the period of the earlier show, but some are newer.

"what he shows so clearly and forcefully in these photos is the sense of community that existed"

Teenie Harris @ Carnegie Museum of Art

My first impression of the Carnegie's Teenie Harris show was anger, over the tiny number of 12 framed prints. Slowly, I've spent more time with the show and am gathering in the wisdom of what was done.

More than most photographers, Harris's work has a dual identity as both potentially fine art and clear journalistic, documentation. Harris himself, never considered himself an artist. When late in life, he said he felt his pictures belonged at the Carnegie, my guess is that he was making more of a statement about his subject matter than anything else. Clearly, he felt that Pittsburgh's African American community and the Hill District was deeply worthy of recognition and he was proud of doing that. We now largely know this community through his work.

I think, the curator said the museum has about 80,000 Harris negatives, of which only about 30,000 have been well researched. The format, built around a large room of projected images and a larger one showing small postcard sized photos in a huge grid, makes one aware of the huge output, and the immense richness of his subject. Of course, the high consistent quality reveals that Harris rarely took a bad photo.

Be back with more thoughts about this show, which requires and rewards spending time looking.