Griffith J. Davis. Griff Davis reviews the script for Liberia’s first promotional film “Pepperbird Land” with its narrator, emerging actor Sidney Poitier in Monrovia, Liberia, 1952. Griffith J. Davis Photographs and Archives.
STILL HERE: The Griffith J. Davis Photographs and Archives in Context
January 22 – March 06, 2021
USF Contemporary Art Museum West Gallery
Still Here is curated by Dorothy M. Davis, President of Griffith J. Davis Photographs and Archives; Christian Viveros-Fauné, CAM Curator at Large; and Noel Smith, CAM Deputy Director and Curator of Latin American and Caribbean Art; and organized by USFCAM.
ONLINE EXHIBITION
Exhibition Home // Foreword + Acknowledgements // Introduction by Dorothy M. Davis // Essay by Christian Viveros-Fauné
FOREWORD + ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Still Here: The Griffith J. Davis Photographs and Archives in Context showcases portraits of celebrated political and cultural figures taken by the ground-breaking photographer and photojournalist Griffith Jerome Davis. The possibility of an exhibition at the USF Contemporary Art Museum came about when Antoinette Jackson, Professor and Chair of USF’s Anthropology Department, introduced us to Dorothy Davis, daughter of Griffith Davis and President of the Griffith J. Davis Photographs and Archives, which contain her father’s life work as a photojournalist, diplomat and filmmaker. The curating of this exhibition is a collaboration between Dorothy Davis; Noel Smith, Deputy Director of the Contemporary Art Museum and Curator of Latin American and Caribbean Art; and Christian Viveros-Fauné, Curator at Large. Images and ephemera from the archive of Griffith Davis are presented alongside modern and contemporary artworks by important Black artists in order to provide a unique view of Black visual culture and history from the 1940s to the present.
The USF Contemporary Art Museum has a long history of organizing temporary exhibitions that take on social justice as a central theme. At this watershed moment in our history, we are committed to recalibrating our approach and becoming an active participant and resource for inclusion and equity.
The exhibition was made possible by an internal USF research grant for Understanding and Addressing Blackness and Anti-Black Racism in Our Local, National, and International Communities. Additional funds were provided by Susana and Yann Weymouth, Mort and Sara Richter, the Stanton Storer Embrace the Arts Foundation, Margaret Miller and a grant from the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs.
We are most appreciative that the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College and The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art have loaned significant artworks from their collections to enhance this exhibition. Thank you to the Contemporary Art Museum staff team for their tireless work on the many detailed and complex aspects of realizing this exhibition. I also offer my thanks to Dr. Antoinette Jackson and the curators, Noel Smith, Christian Viveros-Fauné and Dorothy Davis for their hard work on this exhibition. I wish to extend a special thank you to Dorothy Davis for allowing us to introduce the important legacy of Griff Davis to our students and the broader Tampa Bay community.
Margaret Miller
Director and Professor
USF Institute for Research in Art
Still Here is supported by a USF Understanding and Addressing Blackness and Anti-Black Racism in Our Local, National, and International Communities Research Grant; Susana and Yann Weymouth; Mort and Sara Richter; Major Sponsor The Stanton Storer Embrace the Arts Foundation; and the Florida Department of State.
