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historical notes
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Savacou Gallery was founded in 1985 in the East Village by June Kelly and Loris Crawford, as a response to the lack of representation of African Americans in museums and galleries. It quickly became a leading force in the movement to popularize the art of Black artists including: Charles Bibs, Leroy Campbell, Melvin Clark, Sadikisha Collier, Cecil Cooper, Ernie Crichlow, Carl Davis, James Denmark, Francks Deceus, James Denmark, Escoery, Frank Frazier, Verna Hart, Joseph Holston, Marion Howard, Laura James, Eli Quince, Grace Kisa, Karl Mc Intosh, Frank Morrison, Ademola Olugebefola, Charley Palmer, Robert Reid, Isha Shabaka, Vitus Shell, Ernani Silva, TAFA, William Tolliver, Willie Torbert and Ken Wright.
Savacou Gallery has also been active in community programs, and has been responsible for many initiatives to promote African diasporic communities' creative industries, including the Association of African American Black Owned Galleries (AABOC), the Caribbean Fine Art Fair (CaFA), and The Arts, Culture and Enterprise (ACE) Project. The gallery organized events such as the first African American pavilion at the New York ArtExpo in 1991. In 2004, the gallery co-founder launched Art O The Main, the first art fair to spotlight Caribbean and African art in the United States and the first to spotlight Latin American Art in New York. |
