Jade Powers: Meet Birmingham Museum of Art’s Curator of Contemporary Art

By Javacia Harris Bowser | The Birmingham Times

Just months after Jade Powers became the Hugh Kaul Curator of Contemporary Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) in September 2023, she began work on a major project she’d devote over two years to. Now she can see her efforts pay off with the opening of Roll Call: Two Hundred Years of Black American Art, a major exhibition and publication project highlighting more than 250 Black American artists whose works are part of the BMA’s permanent collection.

The exhibition comes at a landmark moment for the BMA. This year the museum celebrates its 75^th anniversary.

“The museum has worked hard to acquire works by Black artists…and we really felt that as we’re honoring our 75th anniversary and really looking at the history of the museum holistically, it was important to tell that story,” Powers said.

The exhibition, which opens September 26, runs through January 17, 2027.

The BMA acquired its first work by a Black artist in 1971, purchasing a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner. Since then, the museum has built a collection that now spans two hundred years and includes more than 1,000 works by Black American artists—one of the most significant collections of Black American art in the country. The Roll Call exhibition showcases 99 of these works while the publication acknowledges every piece in some way.

Showcase Them All

Though Powers is the lead curator for both the Roll Call exhibition and the publication, she’s quick to say the projects were a team effort.

“It really takes a village, and every single department at the BMA has had a hand in this exhibition from its inception,” she said. “From our registration, conservation, and prep teams preparing for the show to our learning and engagement preparing all the different programs we’ll do and our security team to ensure the works are safe and to ensure that they know about the works when folks ask them questions. Everyone is involved.”

But it was Powers’ vision that expanded the Roll Call publication into the 432-page project that it became.

Initially, the museum’s previous director and CEO Graham Boettcher planned a publication that would highlight 20 to 30 Black artists with works in the BMA’s permanent collection. But Powers wanted to do more.

“I found it so impressive that the BMA had so many works by so many artists that are really groundbreaking Black artists, but also contemporary artists who are changing the way people are thinking about contemporary art right now,” Powers said.

So she had an idea: “Why can’t we showcase them all?”

Fortunately, Boettcher was on board. Powers also had the support of Katelyn Crawford, the William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art, who co-edited the publication.

“There is representation of every Black American artist [in the BMA’s permanent collection] in that publication,” Powers said. “We’re very proud and excited about that and really want that to showcase the work that’s been done since our first acquisition.”

Art History

An Evansville, Indiana native, Powers spent her formative years in Indianapolis. Her parents took her and her two sisters to the local museum as early as age 10, and that’s where she fell in love with art.

“I don’t know like what made them bring us there the first time, but after that very first time, we just loved it,” Powers recalled. She and her sisters would spend hours at the museum looking at and learning about art. They participated in programs at the museum, and when older, Powers sought out an internship there too.

Powers also took art history classes in high school and went on to study at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and did her graduate work at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Before coming to Birmingham, Powers was the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville, Florida, and before that was the assistant curator at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri.

“It really helped me to be nimble,” she said of her time at Kemper. And flexibility it key when working with contemporary art, she added. “While we try really hard to organize things and put things in place, these are living artists, and sometimes deadlines are missed. Being able to be nimble and thoughtful and having that flexibility has been great for me when things might not work out exactly how we plan for the day.”

The city’s history drew Powers to Birmingham. But now that she’s here, she’s equally excited about the city’s present and future.

“It’s really a great city, and I’m just so inspired by the people who live here who are really making it such a great place,” she said.  “And there’s such a great community of local artists here, and it’s really wonderful to be able to engage with them.”

When she’s not working, Powers enjoys the city by taking walks at Railroad Park or hiking the trails at Ruffner Mountain. She enjoys trying new restaurants and going to Barons baseball games and Legion soccer games. She recently joined a rowing club too.

The Role of Art

When asked what role she believes art plays in tumultuous times, Powers said that while she doesn’t believe art has all the answers, it can sometimes help us find common ground with others.

“It can be a place for open dialogue,” she said. “People might not have the same thoughts about an issue, but we can look at a work and talk through that, and maybe that can help us see if there’s common ground or see what next steps are needed to push past this current moment.”

Furthermore, Powers believes art can offer hope.

“I think art can give a visual representation to what you’re feeling,” she said. “Unfortunately, many of the things that are happening now are cyclical. They’ve happened before. So, while that could probably feel very daunting to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s happening again,’ it also, I think, can be inspiring to be able to see those depictions and to see that it can be better and to see that there are ways to creatively represent that.”