"Echoes of Our Future" Gallery Guide: On View at the Barbara Crawford Gallery through March 12th

To capture the breadth of work created by African American artists in Philadelphia, the artworks in this gallery span from the turn of the 20th Century through contemporary artworks created within the last two years. Nicodemus by Henry Ossawa Tanner is the first piece to greet visitors as they enter the gallery.

Henry Ossawa Tanner (1959-1937) was born in Pittsburgh, but was raised in Philadelphia by his mother, Sarah Tanner. His mother, Sarah Tanner, was a former slave who escaped North through the Underground Railroad, and his father was a Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a political activist, and a friend of Frederick Douglas.

Henry Ossawa Tanner had an early interest in painting. While taking a walk in Fairmount Park as a young teen, Tanner stumbled upon a painter working on a landscape. It was then that he decided he would become an artist. Even though Tanner lived in Philadelphia, where African Americans could enjoy more personal freedoms than those in the South, opportunities for work and education for Black artists remained scarce. Tanner studied independently until 1879, when he was finally able to enroll at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts as their first and only African American student. 

Over 130 years later, his great-grand-nephew, Lewis Tanner Moore (Springside Chesnut Hill Academy, Class of 1971), would become one of Philadelphia's most prominent art collectors and advisor to the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art. 

Philadelphia-based artist Tim McFarlane (b. 1964) is known for his vibrant abstract paintings that explore memory, rhythm, and the layered traces we leave behind. Through repeated gestures, overlapping forms, and intuitive mark-making, McFarlane creates visual spaces where structure and improvisation meet. His work invites viewers to consider how individual marks accumulate into shared stories. McFarlane's piece, Tomorrow's Conversations, closes this exhibition and prompts viewers to consider relationships, stories, and the connections that shape our communities.

Tim McFarlane was also invited to participate in a residency at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. SCH students were tasked with learning about McFarlane’s process and the role of mark-making as a form of personal expression. Each student developed a unique visual “mark” that reflects aspects of identity, movement, and creative voice. These gestures were then combined into a collaborative artwork created alongside the artist.

The final piece becomes part of SCH’s Permanent Art Collection, displayed in the Boat Room, celebrating the power of individual expression woven into a collective whole.