The Black Arts Council (BAC) was an organization founded in 1968 to advocate for African-American artists and support their community. Founded by Cecil Fergerson and Claude Booker (black art preparators who worked at the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

, or LACMA), the organization comprised African-American artists, staff members, and other city residents who aimed to promote African-American art in Los Angeles. When the Black Arts Council was founded in 1968, every LACMA board member was white. The organization grew to over 1,000 members in two years. It not only pressured LACMA to organize exhibitions for African-American artists, but also did extensive work supporting artists outside the museum. The BAC organized student field trips to art exhibits, gave lectures at schools, and curated art exhibitions at various community locations and events. The BAC's advocacy produced results in the form of two LACMA exhibitions: ''Three Graphic Artists: Charles White,

David Hammons David Hammons (born July 24, 1943) is an American artist, best known for his works in and around New York City and Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s. Early life David Hammons was born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois, the youngest of ten ...

, and Timothy Washington'' in 1971, and ''Panorama'' in 1972, featuring

Noah Purifoy Noah S. Purifoy (August 17, 1917 – March 5, 2004) was an African-American visual artist and sculptor, co-founder of the Watts Towers Art Center, and creator of the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum. He lived and worked most of his life in ...

John Outterbridge John Outterbridge (March 12, 1933 – November 12, 2020) was an American artist and community activist who lived and worked in Los Angeles, California. His work explores the issues surrounding personal identity such as family, community and the e ...

, and

Betye Saar Betye Irene Saar (born July 30, 1926) is an African-American artist known for her work in the medium of assemblage. Saar is a visual storyteller and an accomplished printmaker. Saar was a part of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s, which eng ...

. These exhibits paved the path for LACMA's 1976 exhibition ''

Two Centuries of Black American Art ''Two Centuries of Black American Art'' was a 1976 traveling exhibition of African-American art organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). It "received greater visibility and validation from the mainstream art world than any other ...

'', which traveled to the

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

in Atlanta, the

Dallas Museum of Fine Arts The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the A ...

, and the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

. The BAC ceased activities in 1974 following Booker's death.

References

{{reflist 1968 establishments in California African-American arts organizations Defunct organizations based in California Arts organizations based in California Organizations based in Los Angeles Arts organizations established in 1968 Arts organizations disestablished in the 20th century Organizations disestablished in 1974 1974 disestablishments in California