Uptown Triennial 2026 I Children's Art Carnival in Harlem: The Making of Contemporary Artists

Monday, June 1 through Sunday, September 13
Wallach Art Gallery I The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, New York

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For the fourth iteration of its Uptown Triennial series, Wallach Art Gallery presents Children’s Art Carnival in Harlem: The Making of Contemporary Artists, an exhibition examining how a community art center emphasized creative freedom, experimentation, and communal bonds through the work of its affiliated artists. The curriculum would vary, morph, and evolve over the more-than-five-decades since its founding, grounded in the belief that working artists can be creative, art can build confidence and a strong sense of identity, and that community can bind people together through pedagogy and care. Often working between figuration and abstraction, the featured Carnival artists employ a wide spectrum of artistic practices such as painting, printmaking, and photography; legacy techniques such as quiltmaking and ceramics; as well as the incorporation of found objects, assemblage, and wearable art.

Initiated in 1969 by the Museum of Modern Art, the Children's Art Carnival in Harlem was led by founding artist and art educator Betty Blayton-Taylor (1937-2016), who created a nonprofit for youth arts and creativity located in a brownstone in Central Harlem. Blayton-Taylor shaped the Carnival's mission to foster self-expression and social awareness, where Black identity and culture were taught alongside art-making techniques.

"It was a safe place and a nurturing environment," remembers the artist Tschabalala Self when asked to describe attending classes at 62 Hamilton Terrace as a child. "It was a place that held community. It was a place that built confidence. It was a place that instilled values. For all those reasons, it was a true home, not just an art institution."

While other Harlem institutions such as the recently reopened Studio Museum have received international attention, the remarkable story of the Children's Art Carnival remains little-known. This is the first major exhibition to examine this vibrant centerpiece of artistic life in Upper Manhattan, which continues to operate, educating new generations of artists and providing opportunities for teaching artists as well as neighborhood children and their families. 

The exhibition presents three works by the program’s founder, Betty Blayton, known for the quiet intensity of her lyrically abstract paintings on rondo canvases; Carnival instructor Dindga McCannon, who references narratives of Black womanhood in textile collages; and Carnival faculty such as Janet Olivia Henry, Senga Nengudi, and Emmett Wigglesworth. Some of the best-known artists affiliated with the Carnival are former students such as Tschabalala Self; and interns such as Amando Alleyne and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The exhibited work of 30 artists affiliated with the Children’s Art Carnival, as well as the archival materials, combine to capture the Carnvial's mix of cross-pollination and artistic freedom through the ensuing decades of Black social movements—from the political ferment of Civil Rights, to the Black Arts movement and Black Lives Matter, and up to the present day.
Artists in the Exhibition:

Armando Alleyne, Tomie Arai, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Milagros Batista, Betty Blayton, Brad Brewer, Lenore Browne, Élan Cadiz, Rocco Candela-Michelus, Carlos Corona, Michael A. Cummings, Carmen L. de Jesús, Jonathan Finlayson, Janet Olivia Henry, robin holder, Elisabeth Kley, Michael Macioce, Steve Mayo, Dindga McCannon, Tomo Mori, Sana Musasama, Senga Nengudi, Ademola Olugebefola, Dionis Ortiz, José Ortiz, Tschabalala Self, Beverly Semmes, Tamara Wasserman, Emmett Wigglesworth, Michael Kelly Williams 

About the Curator:

Souleo is a curator, writer, impresario, consultant, and muse, who documents and amplifies the stories of emerging and underrepresented artists and creative figures. He curated Beau McCall: Buttons On! (2024-present), Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA; Dianne Smith: Two Turntables & a Microphone, (2023) at Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; and Showing Out: Fashion in Harlem, (2021), Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY, among others.  He is the co-curator with Barbara Paris Gifford of the upcoming exhibition Harlem by Hand at the Museum of Arts and Design opening October 9, 2027.

About the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery:

Free and open to the public, Wallach Art Gallery is Columbia University's premier visual arts space, serving as both a laboratory and a forum. A platform for critically acclaimed exhibitions and scholarly publications since 1986, Wallach Art Gallery is home to a dynamic range of programming made possible with support from the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Endowment Fund, Columbia University, and the gallery's patrons.

  

Art Exhibitions West Harlem / Hamilton Heights / Sugar Hill

Schedule & Tickets

Monday, June 1 through Sunday, September 13 · add to calendar today 2026-06-01 09:00:00 2026-09-13 17:00:00 America/New_York Uptown Triennial 2026 I Children's Art Carnival in Harlem: The Making of Contemporary Artists https://harlemonestop.com/event/34708/uptown-triennial-2026-i-childrens-art-carnival-in-harlem-the-making-of-contemporary-artists Wallach Art Gallery I The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University, 615 West 129th Street, New York, NY, 10027