Toward Joy

• Offers a fresh view of American Art from a Black feminist perspective as well as other historical and cultural points of view.
• Accompanies a new installation at the Brooklyn Museum.
• Includes well-known works as well as never-before-seen objects.

Groundbreaking book that explores the collection of the Brooklyn Museum  to reframe the narrative of American Art from a Black feminist perspective.

How might American art be experienced at this moment? Disrupting traditional presentations of art from the Americas and offering a new set of approaches to collection display and interpretation, this groundbreaking publication reframes 2,000 years of art drawn from the world-renowned holdings of the Brooklyn Museum.  Organized within a variety of innovative frameworks, such as “Trouble the Water,” “To Give Flowers,” “Several Seats,” and “Witness,” iconic artworks are grouped alongside never-before-exhibited works, all beautifully illustrated and to dazzling effects.

Texts written by curators, community members, botanists, drag artists, and other thought partners highlight both the curatorial approach and the unique transdisciplinary conversations that can occur between objects. Prioritizing dialogue and engagement, this bold publication creates an accessible and inclusive experience of American Art that spans time, culture, nation, and medium.

Stephanie Sparling Williams is the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art at the Brooklyn Museum.