Arlington artist teaches African American history through paintings and quilts - The Washington Post:
The gymnasium at Washington-Lee High School was transformed into an art gallery last week to offer Arlington County students a new way to experience African American history.
Through the paintings and quilts of local artist Avis Collins Robinson, students saw familiar faces of abolitionists and civil rights leaders such as Sojourner Truth and Malcolm X. They also studied portraits of working people who fought in America’s wars, planted the fields and built universities. The one-day exhibition, “Please Remember Me: Honoring Extraordinary Ordinary People,” was a personal tribute to the artists’ late parents. By extension, Collins Robinson sought to honor their generation — the black Americans who formed a bridge from the indignities of the Jim Crow era to the heady possibilities of the Obama years.
