Willie Birch, who was born and raised in New Orleans, created this monumental series of charcoal drawings, (some as much as twelve-feet long), to pay tribute to his hometown culture. Birch returned to New Orleans in 1994, after living in New York for decades, and moved to within walking distance of the French Quarter. In these vibrant character studies, he reconnects with the everyday street scenes, musical legacy, impromptu parades and vibrant rituals of New Orleans' African-American community. A tour-de-force of draftsmanship, the drawings document traditions and celebrations of African-American life. Birch's subjects include Mardi Gras krewes and parades; festivities for Martin Luther King Day; family gatherings; Sunday church rituals; baptisms; and jazz funerals.

Mardi Gras and the colorful extravaganza of this pre-Lenten revelry in New Orleans--unlike anything else in the United States--is a recurrent theme for Birch.

Birch, (who traveled to Nairobi and Kenya on a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1993), is fascinated by the retention of African traditions in the dress, music, dance and rituals that enliven and unite the African-American community. Through his work, he highlights the many ways that the complex history and artistic legacy of African-America has inspired American culture at large, as for example through jazz, soul and hip-hop. He looks equally at populist art forms and "high" art to celebrate the true freedom of cultural expression, which has triumphed over a dark past of slavery and of economic hardship.

Although Birch's earlier funky, folk-inspired sculptures are widely known, these elegant charcoal drawings are newly on view in this exhibition, the first major museum survey of Birch's work.

Birch attended Southern University in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Lousiana, from which he received his B.A. prior to his earning his graduate degree at Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. Birch has been honored with the Mayor's Arts Award in New Orleans and awarded public-art projects for the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority and Philadelphia International Airport. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts, among many others. In 2002, Birch was the artist in residence for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation.

Exhibition organized by Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans.

Panel Discussion

In conjunction with the exhibition Celebrating Freedom: The Art of Willie Birch (on view at the CAC through January 6), a panel discussion will take place with art scholars and cultural leaders about the themes in the show. Panelists include artist Willie Birch, David S. Rubin, Brown Foundation Curator for Contemporary Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art; James Borders, a New Orleans social commentator and cultural critic; and Leslie King-Hammond, Ph.D, Dean of Graduate Studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.