EXHIBITS
AAM EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
2025
Permanent Exhibits

FACING THE RISING SUN: FREEDMAN’S CEMETERY
Facing The Rising Sun presents the remnants of a once-thriving North Dallas Community. Facing the Rising Sun contains photographs, found objects, and historical documents that provide an insight into a community called Freedman’s Town and later known as short North Dallas and now known as Uptown. Interactive video kiosks allow visitors to see and hear from the people who knew Freedman’s Town first-hand.

The Sam & Ruth Bussey Art Gallery | Imagination and Materiality: The Power of Memory and Storytelling in Black Art
Reinstalled November 2023
The AAM, Dallas has one of the largest collections of African American folk art in the country. The Billy R. Allen Folk Art Collection, named for a founding board member, has grown to include more than 500 objects. Dr. Warren and Sylvia Lowe of Lafayette, Louisiana, Sally Griffiths and Dr. Bobby Alexander of Dallas, Texas have been major contributors. Pieces from the collection are rotated, twice each year, in the Sam and Ruth Bussey Gallery. Artists include Clementine Hunter, Mose Tolliver, Reverend Johnnie Swearingen, David Butler, Sister Gertrude Morgan, and Isaac Smith to name a few.
The Decorative Arts Collection consists of objects as early as the late 18th century. Some items are an 1824 coverlet; five pieces crafted between 1840-1850 by the legendary North Carolina furniture maker, Thomas Day (1820-1860); an 1888 crazy quilt; an 1830 slave made desk from San Augustine, Texas; and ceramics by Carroll Harris Simms, Co-founder of the Texas Southern University Art Department and Sandy Besser African Basket Collection. Also included is a silver teaspoon made by Peter Bentzon (1783-1850).
Current Exhibits

CLAY GRASSES AND REEDS: Carroll Harris Simms Ceramic Collection - January 30, 2025 – March 8, 2025
Decorative and functional objects from the African American Museum’s Decorative Arts permanent Carroll Harris Simms Ceramic Collection and the Sandford “Sandy” Michael and Diane Pettit Besser African Basketry Collection. The exhibition focuses on ancient traditions, techniques and functions of African pottery and basketry and their influence on contemporary culture.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Present, Embracing the Future Exhibit - Delta Sigma Theta
August 26, 2024 – March 15, 2025
With this exhibit Dallas Alumnae Chapter celebrates its Centennial Year with pride, gratitude, and a deep sense of sisterhood. For a century, the Dallas Alumnae Chapter has been a beacon of excellence, resilience, and service in the heart of the Dallas community.
Chartered by one of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s Founders Frederica Chase Dodd in 1924, the Dallas Alumnae chapter has made a profound impact on the lives of individuals and families throughout Dallas and beyond. As they commemorate 100 years of service and empowerment, they honor the legacy of their charter members, trailblazers, and dedicated members who have shaped the chapter into a force for positive change.
Throughout this special year, they will reflect on their accomplishments, celebrate their achievements, and continue their commitment to uplifting and empowering those in need. Their Centennial Year in Dallas is not just a celebration of the past, but a reaffirmation of their dedication to service, education, and social action in the years to come.

28th Biennial Carroll Harris Simms, National Black Art Competition and Exhibition - January 31, 2025 – July 26, 2025
This new exhibit at the African American Museum-Dallas features Black artists from across the country who were selected among hundreds of entries for the Carroll Harris Simms National Black Art Competition and Exhibition.
The art show began in 1976 when the African American Museum-Dallas started the Southwest Black Art Competition and Exhibition to grow the museum’s art collection and give space for Black artists to show their talents. Over time, the show expanded its boundaries and changed its name to the Carroll Harris Sims National Black Art Competition and Exhibition.
Past Exhibits

GALLERY A: SEEING A WORLD THAT BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON NEVER SAW: PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALAN GOVENAR
NOVEMBER 9, 2023 – DECEMBER 1, 2024
The thirty-four photographs of East Texas and early Dallas neighborhoods by Alan Govenar interrogate the sense of place the legendary singer Blind Lemon Jefferson lyricized and illuminate the environment where he was born and lived. Govenar’s compelling photographs are characterized by chromatic elegance and depth. They are different than traditional photographic landscapes and are designed to capture the sublime in the ordinary, immortalizing the pristine and uncharted territories of the earth.


“Door of No Return” – Carol A. Simmons

AFRICAN AMERICANS & THE ARTS
MARCH 14, 2024 – JUNE 1, 2024
Ernest Moore, Curator
For 2024, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) dedicates its 98th Annual Black History Theme to African Americans and the Arts. It is a theme that the African American Museum will also celebrate in this exhibition. African American art is infused with African, Caribbean, and the Black American lived experiences. In the fields of visual and performing arts, literature, fashion, film, music, dance and other forms of cultural expression, the African American influence has been paramount. African American artists have used art to preserve history and community memory as well as for protest and empowerment. Artistic and cultural movements such as the New Negro, Black Arts, Black Renaissance, hip-hop, and Afrofuturism, have been led by people of African descent and set the standard for popular trends around the world. This exhibition examines the varied history and lives of African American arts and artists.
For centuries Western intellectuals denied or minimized the contributions of people of African descent to the arts as well as history, even as their artistry in many genres was mimicked and/or stolen. However, we can still see the unbroken chain of Black art production from antiquity to the present, from Egypt across Africa, from Europe to the New World. Prior to the American Revolution, enslaved Africans of the Low-country of South Carolina and Georgia began their more than a 300-year tradition of making sweetgrass baskets, revealing their visual artistry via craft.
This exhibition features images, artifacts, visual arts as well as other items from the African American Museum’s collections to highlight African Americans’ contributions to Music, Literature, Dance, Fashion, Film and the Visual Arts. It also features the art works of several local artists whose creativity illustrate the ongoing and contemporary contributions of African Americans to the Arts
STAFF CONTRIBUTORS TO THE EXHIBITION
Carmina Barnett
W. Marvin Dulaney
Robert Edison
Theme Analysis Author: Daryl Michael Scott, Morgan State University