![\""I](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Briana-artwork-300x225.jpg\")
But her painting, \u201cI Don\u2019t Bang or Slang on Gang,\u201d which is on display as part of the \u201cSymphony of Colors\u201d<\/a> exhibition at the Ferguson Library next to UConn Stamford<\/a>, marries both her interests. The piece was inspired by a photograph a friend took during a visit to Ivory Coast and shows four boys wearing smiley-face stickers, making silly faces, and staring down into a camera lens.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, it\u2019s \u2018Black boy joy\u2019 of just being carefree on the beach,\u201d Ford says, momentarily breaking from her credo of not talking about her work. \u201cThey\u2019re just children, not something to be demonized or targeted for failure. They are just Black children who want to have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n And as much as she doesn\u2019t like the spotlight, \u201cDon\u2019t Bang or Slang\u201d was featured in all the promotional materials for the show that features Fairfield County artists, many connected to UConn Stamford, through the curating skill of Isabella Montenegro \u201919 (SFA).<\/p>\n Montenegro says her curating experience started during the pandemic on Instagram when she\u2019d go to exhibitions, take pictures of works that moved her, and post them online \u2013 during a time when, for many, visiting an art gallery wasn\u2019t enough reason to leave the house.<\/p>\n And while she didn\u2019t consider that curating, others did and suggested she apply to The Norwalk Art Space as its first Korry Fellow in curating.<\/p>\n That successful application prompted a handful of curating opportunities in Fairfield County and a seat on the board of the Stamford Art Association, which approached her in late 2023 to ask if she\u2019d be interested in putting on a show at the Ferguson Library for Black History Month in February and Women\u2019s History Month in March.<\/p>\n She titled it \u201cSymphony of Colors\u201d because she says she wanted to tell a harmonious story of Black artists and their experiences.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the artists dropped off their works and I started figuring out what walls everything was going on, when I was done hanging everything, I sat down, looked around the room, and had the biggest smile,\u201d she says. \u201cThis show felt so special because a lot of the artists are my friends or people who I\u2019ve become close with the past year.\u201d<\/p>\n Montenegro says she doesn\u2019t consider herself an artist \u2013 she notes that if she drew a picture of a dog, it wouldn\u2019t much look like one \u2013 but does call herself a \u201ccreative\u201d and does see now that she has an artistic eye when figuring out how to group sometimes disparate works, whether in size and shape or subject matter.<\/p>\n The show, after all, is about the artists, she says, and in the case of \u201cSymphony\u201d 14 Black artists, some of them young and emerging and others who are more defined in their work.<\/p>\n Take, for instance, Brea Young \u201919 (SFA) who has exhibited in four shows yet says this one is perhaps the most special \u2013 she used to visit the Ferguson as a young child, borrowing books and sitting for story time.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always been an artsy person and enjoyed the artwork displayed at the library, but now coming here and saying, \u2018That\u2019s my piece,\u2019 to be able to bring my niece here to see the show and my work, is extra special,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Her painting, \u201cPower Puffs,\u201d which shows the silhouette of a Black girl from the forehead up with Afro puffs on top of her head, is one that Young says was inspired by her inner child. It was her favorite hairstyle growing up, one she describes as a \u201csuperpower\u201d in which she felt most confident.<\/p>\n \u201cMy niece looked at that piece and said, \u2018I do my hair like that! It looks like me,\u2019\u201d she says, remarking she hopes the young girl also feels powerful in the hairdo.<\/p>\n Montenegro says that many of the pieces refer to the artists’ experiences or childhood \u2013 Young\u2019s other work in the show, \u201cUntitled,\u201d is a round canvas depicting a pattern reminiscent of the loud prints on Coogi sweaters from the 1990s, with which she says she was fascinated as a child.<\/p>\n Tara Blackwell (Malone), who is associate director of UConn\u2019s Center for Career Development for the regional campuses, has been a painter off and on most of her life, she says, working steadily over the last decade and drawing inspiration from one of her favorite television shows growing up: Sesame Street.<\/p>\n \u201cYoung, Gifted & Black \u2013 Roosevelt Franklin\u201d depicts the Sesame Street character who was on the program from 1970-75. She says that as a young girl his song, \u201cThe Skin I\u2019m In,\u201d resonated most with her.<\/p>\n Kermit the Frog\u2019s song, \u201cIt\u2019s Not Easy Being Green,\u201d also helped Blackwell work through feelings of acceptance, she says, and her piece by the same name pays tribute to that while tying in the struggle of the more contemporary Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a very shy child and wish that I was able to use my voice more in certain situations. I think I still feel that way now as a woman,\u201d she says. \u201cThrough art I use my voice. It\u2019s interesting because I\u2019m very soft spoken and quiet, but my artwork is very bold, bright, colorful, and kind of satirical as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Montenegro has paired Blackwell\u2019s third entry \u201cGood Trouble\u201d \u2013 one of a series of paintings that display fortune cookie-type sayings and in this case declares from civil right activist John Lewis, \u201cGet in good trouble, necessary trouble\u201d \u2013 with paintings of Malcolm X and Lewis, a former U.S. representative.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t ask for any of the artists for specific works. I also didn\u2019t ask them to send me a photograph ahead of time. I just gave them the theme, title, and what I was looking for, so when they dropped off their submissions that was the first time, in many cases, that I saw them,\u201d Montenegro says.<\/p>\n In some instances, like with the John Lewis quote, the pairings came naturally. On the two curved walls of the gallery space, though, Montenegro needed to get a little more creative.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up taking art classes but there wasn\u2019t anything that I felt confident enough about to keep pursuing. In high school I took a marketing elective, and at UConn was drawn to DMD with a concentration in digital media strategy for business<\/a>,\u201d Montenegro says, adding of her work as curator, \u201cI\u2019ve now come full circle.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\""Power](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Brea-artwork-225x300.jpg\")
![\""Untitled"](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Saint-artwork-230x300.jpg\")