In 1998, guest curator John Baker along with the Burchfield Penney staff organized the exhibition Sharing Our View to showcase the diverse range of black visual artists working in Buffalo. Following its presentation at the Center, the exhibition traveled to New Mount Ararat Temple of Prayer, a church and community center on the East Side to inaugurate East Side/West Side, the Museum Outreach Program. Centered on fostering community engagement and accessibility to the arts for Buffalo’s inner-city youth, the program aimed “to expose children to art – by having them create their own work, letting them meet artists from the community, and getting them into galleries.”[1] Youth participated in several activities facilitated by exhibiting artists that included games, a Kente weaving project, art-making workshops, and an interactive computer game.

25 years later, a transformative approach to community engagement and expanding access to the arts for young people remains central to the Burchfield Penney mission. An increasingly tumultuous social, economic, and political climate has renewed a sense of urgency in artistic expression as a means for youth to navigate and process these uncertain times. Using the original exhibition and Useum Outreach Program as a starting point, Sharing Our View: 25th Anniversary celebrates the ways the program’s core mission has evolved with the growth of the museum, and the intergenerational legacy of black artists who continue the important work of cultivating meaningful connections through art across Buffalo’s diverse communities. The exhibition features artwork by the artists included in the original show as well as related archival material. In celebration of both past and present, the exhibition also features several contemporary artists who continue to cultivate opportunities for connection through their own artwork, arts education, and community engagement practices. This is exemplified by their involvement with organizations such as WNY Urban Arts Collective, Buffalo’s Own, Inc., Get Fokus’d Productions, Princessa’s Studio and Art Gallery, Buffalo Arts Studio, the Buffalo Public Schools, and the Burchfield Penney Art Center, among others.