Art exhibits Our Stories & Sorting Out Race

Explore the Our Stories: African American Topeka Before and After Brown exhibit in the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery February 23 - May 19 and the Sorting Out Race exhibit March 3 - May 19 in the library's Alice C. Sabatini Gallery.

May 17, 2024, marks the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in the landmark Brown V Board of Education of Topeka case ruling that segregation was unconstitutional in United States schools. The Alice C. Sabatini Gallery is hosting two exhibits that use art and history to explore the effects of racial divisions in the United States.

Our Stories: African American Topeka Before and After Brown

Opening Feb 23, Our Stories: African American Topeka Before and After Brown celebrates and honors generations of African Americans in Topeka, the tight-knit neighborhoods they built, and how their legacies continue to shape the city today. Our Stories is a collaboration between the Black American Blueprint Collective and the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery.

The mission of the Black American Blueprint Collective is to foster an organization that creates pride, self-esteem, dignity, honor, and respect within Topeka's Black community. The Black American Blueprint Collective acknowledges the following organizations for their support of the exhibit: Equity Bank, Freedom Frontier National Heritage Area, Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, Visit Topeka and Washburn University.

Sorting Out Race

Opening March 3, Sorting Out Race is a traveling exhibit that uses commonly found thrift store items such as salt-and-pepper shakers, children’s books, and antique advertising cards to guide a community conversation about stereotyping and historical cultural perceptions of race.

Sorting Out Race is supported by the United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities and Humanities Kansas. The exhibition was created by the Kauffman Museum at Bethel College.