Visions of our 44th President Exhibit

ow do you see President Barack Obama?

Metro Detroit visual artists Allie McGhee, Shirley Woodson and Gilda Snowden were among 44 nationally renowned and up-and-coming artists from across the country that used everything from paint and newsprint to feathers and fabric to answer that question on busts of President Obama.

Their personal interpretations will be showcased in Visions of Our 44th President, an exhibit that will run from October 14-Aug. 4 at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.

“One of the pieces that I really like is by Felandus Thames, says Exhibit Curator Ashley Whitfield of the Charles H. Wright Museum. “He’s done this bust that looks like a cast-iron bust, and it really works because he made it something that could be like a permanent installation in a major museum.”

In fact, after the exhibit’s debut at the Charles H. Wright Museum, it will tour museums, libraries and galleries across the country, making it the museum’s first national traveling exhibition. Once the tour is completed, some of the pieces from this exhibit will be incorporated into the museum’s permanent collection.

‘This is our first African American president,” Whitfield says. “This is our opportunity to mark this really historic moment. “