Curating a Black Collagists Community

In conjunction with Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage, The Phillips Collection is hosting a conversation between artist Helina Metafaria and curator/writer Teri Henderson on August 18 centered around the theme of community organizing. Here, Teri shares her passion for the Black collagists community and her curatorial practice. 

Read more about Helina Metafaria

Teri Henderson is a Baltimore-based independent curator, Baltimore Beat’s Arts and Culture Editor, and the author of Black Collagists: The Book. In 2020, Henderson started an Instagram account called @blackcollagists. This platform features the work of emerging and established collage artists to raise awareness about the history of Black collage art. Henderson focuses her work as a writer and curator on Black artists and creatives. 

What directs your interest in collage and can you share more information about your writing and other work in collage?

My interest in collage, and collage being my curatorial focus, happened unexpectedly, and I feel extremely lucky and grateful to be a part of the Black Collagists community. I am the founder and curator of a platform called Black Collagists. Black Collagists features the work of emerging and established collage artists to raise awareness about the history (and future) of Black collage art. Although I started the platform, it is nothing without the Black artists who share their work; these Black collage artists have created a community of solidarity and artmaking.

This all started with an IG platform (@blackcollagists)—a passion project that has become my life’s work. I believe in the platform because I have seen how it has taken on a life of its own. I focus my work primarily on the work of Black artists. When I started this research, I had a narrow view of what collage was, and now I see examples everywhere!

I started Black Collagists in 2020 after I was hired by two white collectors based out of Washington State; after the extrajudicial murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the onset of the pandemic, they followed the lead of many other white institutions and decided to diversify their collection. I was aware of peers who were making collage artwork and several Black contemporary artists making collages. I searched the internet for a list of Black collage artists to begin adding to, and then I was startled to find none. At that point, I started an IG account to keep track of artists I thought the collectors should purchase work from and as a database to keep track of artists I might want to work with. I never thought more than myself and a few friends would follow the page.

When I started @blackcollagists, I did not dream it would develop into what it is today—a platform for connection and community by and for Black artists. The account grew in weeks; it now has nearly 10,000 followers and grows daily. Black Collagists: The Book, published in 2021 (Kanyer Publishing), became a physical record of my research. It has become my life’s work and curatorial focus, and I am so grateful for the community of artists who are part of it.

Can you share some of your curatorial process?

I am an intuitive curator. I write about and curate work that moves me innately. I curate the Black Collagists Instagram page and have recently begun to post features regularly on it (after taking a break). Black collage artists are invited to submit! Email teri@blackcollagists.com for more information.

Maintaining Black Collagists means that I am the curator of a digital archive, which is not so different from curating exhibitions in real life. I first started working on shows during the pandemic. I spend a few hours each week looking at art online and out in the world.

I have been blessed to be invited to work on two museum exhibitions in the past few years. In 2023, I served as a jury member for the exhibition Histories Collide: Jackie Milad x Fred Wilson x Nekisha Durrett. In 2024, I served as a consulting curator for the acclaimed exhibition New Worlds: Women to Watch 2024 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. (Jackie Milad and SHAN Wallace’s work were both collage)

I am currently working on two exhibitions. all water has a perfect memory is an exhibition of works by Fleesie Hubbard, Jamilla Okubo, and Jessica Whittingham opens at Current Space in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 6. This show features a mixture of collage, painting, and photography.

Along with Andrea Dixon, Director of the Office of Exhibitions, I am co-curating a large collage exhibition at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) that will open in January 2025. The show, LAYERS: The Art of Contemporary Collage, will feature 30 contemporary collage artists, many of whom have been featured on the Black Collagists platform.

What are some of your general practice techniques or beliefs that you incorporate into your work?

As a writer and curator, I constantly seek to create spaces highlighting marginalized creatives’ stories and work. I believe Black people must be stewards of Black art.

One of my general beliefs is that anyone can collage, and by collaging, Black artists are in direct communication with their ancestors. Collaging is spiritual. The tactile use of touching, arranging, and reconfiguring becomes a meditative grounding art practice. I often facilitate collage workshops and love it when I see participants letting their guard down, listening to music, putting away their phones, and being fully present. The focus is always on people entering a space, unplugging from their daily lives, and being fully present.