| Contact:
Jeff Morgan, Jeff.Morgan@iowa.gov,
(515) 281-3858
(DES
MOINES) – Fascinating stories about Negro
leagues baseball will be on tap when the Negro Leagues
Baseball Museum’s Ray Doswell visits Des Moines
this month.
Doswell is the NLBM’s education director and
curator behind “Shades of Greatness: Art Inspired
by Negro Leagues Baseball,” a traveling modern
art exhibit on display at the State Historical Museum.
He will recount his experiences in putting together
the exhibit and will tell stories about the Negro
leagues 5-7 p.m. August 25th at the State Historical
Museum, 600 E. Locust Street in Des Moines’
Historic East Village. Wine and truffles will be available,
and visitors will have an opportunity to meet and
visit with Doswell. Admission is free.
“Shades of Greatness” has been on display
in venues and museums across the country, including
the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,
N.Y. The exhibit reflects the history, social thread
and economic impact of Negro leagues baseball (1920-1960)
in a mixed media presentation from paintings to sculpture.
In developing the exhibit, the NLBM – located
in Kansas City – brought together a group of
artists to tour the NLBM, view presentations by former
players such as Buck O’Neil and read about the
Negro leagues. The group of artists created the 35
pieces included in the exhibit.
The exhibit pieces are mixed media, from cubist paintings
of Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and James “Cool
Papa” Bell to bronze sculptures of batters’
hands, including those of Ted “Double Duty”
Radcliffe. Some works focus on individuals, like Jackie
Robinson, while others are symbolic, generic figures
representing Negro league ball players and their experiences.
A third group works many known figures into the same
piece while giving each player equal status.
The history of African Americans playing baseball
on military, college and company teams dates to the
late 1800s. Eventually, they found their way to professional
teams with white players. But racism and “Jim
Crow” laws forced them from these teams by 1900.
As a result, African American players formed their
own teams, “barnstorming” across the country
to play anyone who would challenge them.
In 1920, leagues were formed, bringing the thrills
and innovative play of Negro leagues baseball to major
urban centers and rural country sides in the U.S.,
Canada, and Latin America. The leagues maintained
a high level of professional skill and became centerpieces
for economic development in many African American
communities.
In 1945, Major League Baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers
recruited Jackie Robinson from the Kansas City Monarchs
to be the first African American to play on a Major
League roster. Robinson spent the 1946 season playing
for the International League’s Montreal Royals
before taking Ebbets Field April 15, 1947 for the
Dodgers.
The historic event was a key moment in baseball and
civil rights history, but it prompted the decline
of Negro leagues baseball. The best African American
players were recruited for the Major Leagues, and
African American fans followed. The last Negro leagues
teams folded in the early 1960s, but their legacy
lives on through surviving players and the Negro Leagues
Baseball Museum.
In conjunction with “Shades of Greatness,”
State Historical Museum staff created an exhibit called
“Black Baseball in Iowa” that explores
Iowa’s connections to baseball, and includes
artifacts from the museum’s collection.
The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs is responsible
for developing the state’s interest in the areas
of the arts, history and other cultural matters with
the advice and assistance from its two divisions:
the State Historical Society of Iowa and the Iowa
Arts Council. DCA preserves, researches, interprets
and promotes an awareness and understanding of local,
state and regional history and stimulates and encourages
the study and presentation of the performing and fine
arts and public interest and participation in them.
It implements tourism-related art and history projects
as directed by the General Assembly and designs a
comprehensive, statewide, long-range plan with the
assistance of the Iowa Arts Council to develop the
arts in Iowa. More information about DCA is available
at www.culturalaffairs.org.
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