The Indigo Project

Curated by Bushmama Africa and Isha Rosemond, The Indigo Project is a landmark multidisciplinary exhibition centering Black artists and their stories as a means to combat the erasure of African American history, culture, and creativity.

The Indigo Project remembers the stories of African Diaspora history that have been dismembered from our collective memories: “indigo” as healing, as the Earth, as adornment, as connection; “project” as in a spiritual assignment intentionally planned to fulfill a specific purpose. Bushmama Africa, an initiated Priestess in African Traditional Religion, partnered with Isha Rosemond, a post-disciplinary artist and founder of the Black Freedom Fellowship, to uplift intergenerational and ancestral connection through the materials of Indigo, Cotton, and Denim.

Informed by academic research, decades of traditional African spiritual initiation, and the ethics of communal collaboration, The Indigo Project unravel narratives that bring the African Diaspora and Indigenous peoples back to the roots of their storytelling.

Opening Reception
December 9, 2022, 6–9PM PST

About SOMArts’ Curatorial Residency Program
Designed to offer emerging to established curators tools to further their practice and explore timely social issues through arts & culture, SOMArts’ Curatorial Residents have transformed our large-scale exhibition space into a site of collaborative creation and innovation for over a decade.

Awarded through an open submission process, this unique program is a year-long incubator for curatorial research, mentorship, planning, and realization. SOMArts Curatorial Residency recipients receive the following support: a month-long exhibition with accompanying public programming, a project grant, and 9-months of planning and technical support, outreach assistance, and professional mentorship provided by SOMArts’ staff.

Artist credit: Stephen Hamilton, Awon Iya Alaye: The Owners of The Earth, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist.