Dana Chandler gives a gallery talk in “Afro-American Artists: New York and Boston,” 1970
Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists records (M042). Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections, Boston, Massachusetts. Box 26, Folder 3. All artwork pictured © Dana C. Chandler Jr.
Following much controversy leading up to “Afro-American Artists” opening, Chandler wrote, “This is a very, very major show.... Its significance to me as a Black man, a Black parent, and a member of a dynamic Black community (as well as one of several catalysts for this exhibit) becomes obvious when one remembers that this will be the first time that my children, my parents, and my community will see a major show about them and of them sponsored by a Black institution in a major white institution. This is both a joy and a tragedy. A joy because of what my children and the children of my community will at last see; a tragedy that it happened so long after my parents’ childhood. However, the joy immeasurably transcends the tragedy.” (From “Notes from a Black Artist,” May 1970. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Archives.)