Before 5: Searching for August Savage, Then and Now

Join us for an afternoon screening Searching for Augusta Savage, a 22-minute documentary from Charlotte Mangin and Sandra Rattley of Audacious Women Productions. Augusta Savage is one of the most influential contributors to the Harlem Renaissance, and one of the most enterprising. She did so much to support the careers of other Black artists, yet little is known about her extensive accomplishments.

Following the screening, filmmakers Charlotte Mangin and Sandra Rattley will join Tammi Lawson, Curator of the Schomburg Center's Art & Artifacts Division, for a discussion about making the documentary, untold stories of Savages life, the multi-dimensionality of the Harlem Renaissance, and the educational resources being created to secure Savage's legacy, to be discovered by younger generations.

The afternoon will close with a look at work created by Augusta Savage housed at the Schomburg Center. The Art & Artifacts Division has the largest collection of artwork by Augusta Savage in a public institution.

Space is limited!

Want to learn more about Augusta Savage at the Schomburg Center? Check out our LibGuide .

85 years ago, Sculptor Augusta Savage opened the first gallery in the U.S. dedicated to exhibiting the work of Black artists. She also founded two organizations providing free art education to over 2,500 people, and mentored a generation of venerated artists, including Romare Bearden, Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence. The first African American elected to the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors (the National Association of Women Artists), Savage was also the only Black artist, and one of four women, commissioned to create an exhibit for the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing, New York. Searching for Augusta Savage, a 22-minute documentary which premiered on the new PBS series, American Masters Shorts, features Art historian Jeffreen M. Hayes, PhD. exploring Savage’s legacy, and why her artwork has been largely erased.

Support for Searching for Augusta Savage was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts; Heather L. Burns and Kathleen A. Maloy; Humanities New York; and Devin and Gina Mathews. The film was produced by Audacious Women, in association with American Masters Pictures and Black Public Media. Audacious Women LLC is solely responsible for its content.

Charlotte Mangin is a documentary filmmaker with over 20 years of experience in multimedia storytelling, fundraising and nonprofit management. She was the executive producer, director and writer of Searching for Augusta Savage, a 22-minute documentary about the prolific Harlem Renaissance sculptor, as well as the creator, executive producer, director, and writer of Unladylike2020, an innovative animated documentary series about unsung women who changed America at the turn of the 20th century and the women who now follow in their footsteps, which premiered on PBS’s flagship biography series American Masters in honor of the centennial of women’s suffrage. Learn more at www.audaciouswomen.com.

Sandra Rattley has over 40 years experience leading and launching multimedia projects. She was executive producer, director and writer of Searching for Augusta Savage, a 22-minute documentary about the prolific sculptor, who was one of the most influential contributors to the Harlem Renaissance and a leading artist in the U.S., the lead film for a new PBS series, “American Masters Shorts.” Rattley was also executive producer, director and writer for Unladylike2020, an animated documentary series about unsung women who changed America over a hundred years ago, which premiered on PBS’s biography series American Masters timed to the centennial of women’s suffrage. With Charlotte Mangin, she is co-founder of Audacious Women Productions.

Tammi Lawson is Curator of the Art and Artifacts Division at The New York Public Library’s renowned Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Lawson is the 2021 Bertha Franklin Feder Award winning Librarian and holds an MLS degree from Queens College, CUNY specializing in the preservation of cultural heritage materials, museum collections, and digital curation. The collection she oversees houses approximately 15,000 works of fine art and artifacts dating back to the 17th century that reflect the history and expressive culture of the African Diaspora. Lawson advises and supports the students, scholars and curators who visit the collection to research and prepare papers, books, catalogs, and exhibitions on black art and artists. As a curator, she collaborated on the Schomburg exhibition Curators’ Choice: Black Life Matters and recently curated the exhibit A Labor of Love: The Constance E. Clayton Collection. Lawson recently collaborated with poet Marilyn Nelson on the book Augusta Savage, the Shape of a Sculptor’s Life, published in 2022.

ASL interpretation will be provided upon availability of interpreters. Live captioning is available for streaming programs. Additional accessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].

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FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED Events are free and open to all, but due to space constraints registration is requested. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. After the event starts all registered seats are released regardless of registration, so we recommend that you arrive early.

GUESTS Please note that holding seats in the Langston Hughes Auditorium is strictly prohibited and there is no food or drinks allowed anywhere in the Schomburg Center.

E-TRANSPORTATION NYPL policy prohibits electric transportation devices (e.g., motorbikes, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards) from being brought into or stored at library sites for any length of time, as this is the best way to keep our spaces & people safe.

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at [email protected].

Please note that professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.

IN-PERSON | By registering for this event, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. By attending an in-person program at The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold The New York Public Library, its Trustees, officers, agent and employees liable for any illness or injury. If you have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 or suspect you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive, please stay home.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, United States