VIDEO: AUGUSTA SAVAGE

Searching for Augusta Savage: A Legacy Reclaimed

This American Masters documentary, Searching for Augusta Savage, traces the life and legacy of Augusta Savage—an artist, educator, and trailblazing figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Savage was the first person in the U.S. to open a gallery dedicated to African American art, and one of the earliest Black women art activists to fight for the inclusion of Black artists in major institutions and the broader art historical canon.

Central to this documentary is the voice and scholarship of Dr. Jeffreen M. Hayes, a curator and art historian who has played a key role in bringing renewed attention to Savage’s contributions. Dr. Hayes not only contextualizes Savage’s practice within a larger cultural and political framework, but also brings curatorial insight shaped by her own experience organizing exhibitions of Savage’s work.

I’m sharing this because, beyond chronicling one artist’s life, the film reveals how historical erasure happens—and how curatorial work like Dr. Hayes’s helps undo that erasure, reminding us that art history is never fixed, but always in the process of being rewritten.

READ: How Augusta Savage forged a path for Black women in the arts