Mission Statement
The mission of the African American Visual Artists Database is to establish a free public access record of the historical and ongoing contribution of artists of African descent to the visual arts, and to provide a visual and textual informational resource for non-profit educational use with unrestricted free access to all members of the global community.
Our mission is to encourage the inclusion of artists of the African Diaspora in those areas where they continue to be underrepresented: the curricula and scholarship of schools and universities, museums and private collections, gallery and public exhibition spaces, public and institutional commissions.
AAVAD.com intends to provide continually updated information on the following:
- List of artists of the African Diaspora
- Biographical information
- Bibliography and record of exhibitions
- High quality images for educational use, suitable for classroom projection and study
- Contact information (when available - at the artist's discretion)
- Search (including metadata categories to insure effective information retrieval by a broad range of users)
- Public collection holdings
Scope:
All artists of the African Diaspora and Africa who have lived, worked, studied or exhibited in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. Artists are eligible for inclusion when they have been actively and professionally engaged in the production of works of art for a period of at least 4 years and are at least 21 years old.
Status as of February 10, 2008:
10,232 artists of record
20,166 catalogued books and exhibition listings
54,478 crosslinks
Images and permissions are now being collected from artists, private collectors, galleries, and museums partnering with our work.
Projected Web Launch Dates:
Stage 1: Artists and Bibliography - November 2006
Stage 2: Preliminary Image Bank - Spring 2008