Dreams of This Future: The Collection of Peggy Cooper Cafritz at the Studio Museum in Harlem

The Studio Museum in Harlem, at 144 West 125th Street, is showing "Dreams of This Future: The Collection of Peggy Cooper Cafritz" through February 28, 2027. Drawn from a historic gift to the museum, the exhibition is the first to approach Cafritz (1947–2018) specifically as a collector.

Cafritz was an arts patron, educator, and civil rights activist. In 1974 she cofounded the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, a public school in Washington, DC, and she left most of her collection to that school and to the Studio Museum. The museum has shown dozens of works from the bequest over the years, but none of those presentations centered on her own story as a collector.

She built two collections in her lifetime. The first was largely destroyed in a 2009 fire; the second was assembled in the seven years before her death. Both reflected a steady commitment to artists of African descent. Her interests crossed media, and this show includes paintings, photographs, sculptures, textiles, and works on paper. She also made a point of supporting artists early in their careers. She described her approach as a "relentless search for beauty," one that was "in part, a political act."

The bequest comprises more than four hundred works by over two hundred artists of African descent, many of whom were not yet in the museum's collection. The exhibition presents only a small portion, framed as an expression of equity, beauty, and permanence.

Forty-seven artists are represented, among them Kerry James Marshall, Simone Leigh, Wangechi Mutu, Nick Cave, Deana Lawson, Titus Kaphar, Hank Willis Thomas, Jennifer Packer, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Tschabalala Self, and Noah Davis. The list also includes Derek Fordjour, Sanford Biggers, Laylah Ali, Hassan Hajjaj, and Kay Hassan, spanning generations and several continents. The show is organized by Curator Connie H. Choi and Curatorial Assistant Kiki Teshome, with support from the Cafritz family.