Amalia Amaki to Speak on RISD Sculptress Nancy Elizabeth Prophet

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Amalia Amaki to Speak on RISD Sculptress Nancy Elizabeth Prophet

The Newport Art Museum will host a talk examining artist Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, the first black graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design next Thursday, March 13th at 6:00PM.

Amalia Amaki, a professor of Modern Contemporary Art at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and foremost Prophet scholar, will lead the discussion.

Nancy Elizabeth Prophet was born in Warwick in 1890. After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1918 Prophet attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris where she lived for nearly a decade. Prophet was also a tenured professor at Spelman College, a historically Black college in Atlanta, where she created a degree program in 3-D art. In 1932 Prophet exhibited at the Newport Art Museum winning Best in Show.

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Passing away in 1960, Prophet is survived by few of her sculptures, three of which are at the RISD Museum, two at the RI Black Heritage Society, and one at the Whitney Museum. Project director Ray Rickman says, “Prophet is one of those great Rhode Island icons that time and historians have mostly forgotten. This project reintroduces her to the public in new and exciting ways.” The exhibit includes two of Prophet’s sculptures and a portrait of her.

The event is funded by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and sponsored by Opera Providence.


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