Google Cultural Institute features BMA exhibit on African-American artists

For Black History Month, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) is turning toward digital means to spread knowledge about its holdings. With a national move to highlight more black artists in museums, the BMA is using its resources to influence representations on Google and Wikipedia.
As of Monday, a new exhibition of museum holdings by African-American artists is featured on Google Cultural Institute.
See the exhibit
The BMA has hundreds of works available on the Google portal to peruse, but this is the first exhibit the museum assembled in this digital gallery.
Called “Questioning the Canon,” the selection of 18 works by artists like Nick Cave, Kara Walker and Faith Ringgold “challenge the way African Americans have historically been seen” throughout the history of Western art, according to the BMA. For instance, Ringgold’s work depicts a fictitious African-American woman posing for a Henri Matisse painting.
The BMA is one of 40 institutions with works on Google.
Along with showing new representations of African Americans in art, the museum will look to rewrite the narrative on one Saturday afternoon.
A Feb. 13 event aims to improve Wikipedia entries for African-American artists. By creating new entries or improving existing ones, the BMA is hoping to increase the presence of black artists online. The event reminds us of a similar effort at the Philadelphia Museum of Art held last March.