HOUSTON — In a few days, a unique collection of Black artwork and artifacts from across the globe will be on display for the public to enjoy.
Holocaust Museum Houston was chosen to display the Kinsey Collection.
"My parents have always had a deep passion for discovery. World travel has always informed their love for culture and so they began wanting to collect and preserve their memories from those travels," Khalil Kinsey said.
That's how the collection started in the early 70s. Bernard and Shirley Kinsey are still collecting, but their son, Khalil, curates the massive collection of African-American art, artifacts and history, and takes it around the world to be displayed.
For the next six months, the collection will be in Houston.
"We prefer to go to places where people do not expect us to go," Khalil Kinsey said. "We’ve worked to uncover the uncanny connections, often unknown connections and understandings of allyship between African-American and Jewish communities through the lens of arts and culture."
The collection is eclectic, including:
- A piece by Laura Wheeler Waring
- A portrait of Marcus Garvey -- a major political activist in the early 1900s
- Contemporary work by Jonathan Green
- Unique pieces from artists like Alma Woodson Thomas
Khalil Kinsey said he hopes the pieces of history inspire visitors.
"There are tremendous parallels between the atrocities of the Holocaust in comparison to American slavery and the systemic ways in which that took place and continue to, in some regards," Khalil Kinsey said. "We are in a moment of time where hatred is on the rise and the more we understand that we are together and have a duty to be together in fighting against this, the stronger we are."
The Kinsey Collection, presented by Shell USA, will be on display at Holocaust Museum Houston starting Friday and will remain there through June 23.