Valerie Mercer and the Long Work of Putting African American Art Where It Belongs

April 24, 2026 / Rolling Stone British /

Over two decades, Valerie Mercer has built a collection that makes the case that a complete history of American art must include African American artists. Courtesy of the Detroit Institute of Arts

When the Detroit Institute of Arts unveiled its newly reinstalled galleries dedicated to African American art last fall, the most important change wasn’t simply curatorial—it was topographic. For decades, works by Black artists had been scattered throughout the museum or relegated to the quieter corners of the modern wing. Now, after a major rehang, they sit at the heart of the institution, steps from Diego Rivera’s massive Detroit Industry Murals, the museum’s most visited landmark, prominently placed in the institution’s narrative of American culture.

The architect of the shift is lead curator of African American art Valerie Mercer, who joined the museum in 2001 after formative years at the Studio Museum in Harlem with a mandate to transform a thinly represented area of the collection into a defining strength. At the time, the museum held only a handful of works by African American artists, but Mercer approached the task with the pragmatism of a historian, methodically acquiring pieces that would allow the museum to tell a fuller, more accurate story of American art.

In “Reimagine African American Art,” the reinstallation traces a lineage that stretches from nineteenth-century painters such as Robert S. Duncanson—a major figure in his own time who later slipped from mainstream art history—to twentieth-century innovators like Sam Gilliam. The four galleries move through key cultural moments, including the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement, while foregrounding artists whose contributions have often been sidelined in canonical surveys.

The significance of the rehang lies not only in the elevation of deserving talent but also in the culmination of a decades-long institutional recalibration. By moving African American art from the margins of the museum to its literal center, DIA has turned Mercer’s curatorial project into a permanent structural commitment. Observer recently sat down with her to discuss her role in the evolution of the museum’s collection, what she hoped to accomplish with the reinstallation and the public’s response.

DIA started adding works by African American artists to its historic collection in the 1940s. What can you tell me about the trajectory of the museum’s African American art collection, which now has more than 700 works, and how it has evolved?

When I was hired, it was with the specific goal of creating a center for African American art. The previous director recognized that the museum wasn’t doing enough to engage Detroit’s large African American community. At the time, African Americans weren’t showing up, and the director thought that if the museum had someone who specialized in African American art, it would attract people. He was familiar with my work at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and I was brought in to help improve the collection. When I arrived, there were very few pieces of African American art in the museum’s collection, and my task was to assess the collection’s strengths and weaknesses and then begin acquiring works to fill those gaps. Over the years, I’ve focused on acquiring artwork that tells the story of African American art and its contributions to American art history, which I felt was a missing link.

A large landscape painting depicts a calm lake at sunset with a small boat carrying figures, surrounded by wooded shores and distant mountains under a glowing sky. — Robert S. Duncanson, *Ellen’s Isle, Loch Katrine*, 1871. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of the Estate of Ralzemond D. Parker

How did you approach building out the collection?

It was clear to me that there were major gaps in the collection and that the history of African American artists had largely been overlooked. I’ve been acquiring works steadily over the years, with the goal of showcasing African American art within the broader context of American art history. I wanted to bring attention to these artists’ contributions, which had often been erased from mainstream art history. It’s been a rewarding process, and over the years, I’ve developed a collection that reflects the richness and depth of African American art. The reinstallation, specifically, is about elevating these artists to a prominent place in the museum, where they can finally receive the recognition they deserve.

Let’s talk about the rehang and its significance. The newly reimagined galleries opened with “Reimagine African American Art,” which features works from the early 1800s through the 1980s and highlights key art historical moments, including the Harlem Renaissance, Social Realism, the art of the Civil Rights era and the Black Arts Movement. What goals drove your choices?

We’re making African American art more visible and showcasing the rich history that these artists have contributed to American art. Many of the artists featured in the exhibition have been under-recognized, but their work is crucial to understanding the history of art in the U.S. This exhibition gives visitors a chance to learn about these artists and appreciate their role in shaping American art. The exhibition is also a response to the historical erasure of African American art and artists, and it provides a space for visitors to engage with their work in a meaningful way.

A gallery view shows paintings hung on red walls and a glass case containing small white bust sculptures, with a quote painted high on the wall above the display. — Edmonia Lewis’s busts of Minnehaha and Hiawatha with works by Robert S. Duncanson and others. Courtesy of the Detroit Institute of Arts

Are there specific artists front and center in the reinstallation who you felt were particularly under-recognized?

All the artists in the exhibition deserve more recognition, but Robert Duncanson, in particular, stands out. He was one of the first African American artists to gain national recognition during his time, but for many years, his work was overlooked and became, in a sense, unknown—disappeared or erased. I’ve been working to bring attention to his work and the legacy of artists like him.

There’s also the example of Edmonia Lewis, an African American and Native American sculptor who was an important figure in 19th-century sculpture and depicted Native American and African American people when, traditionally, marble sculpture was associated with white figures going back to antiquity. We have these beautiful busts she did of Minnehaha and Hiawatha. She has such an interesting story—she was among the first African Americans, and also among the first Native Americans, to work in marble. Her work is often overshadowed by that of her contemporaries, but she made significant contributions to American art. We have some of her work, and there’s a retrospective of her work on at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts.

But most of the artists in this show are really underrecognized, even now. Many of them were not really famous—they got some recognition toward the end of their lives, unfortunately. We see this all the time. Recognition often comes very late. I knew some of the living artists when I was in New York working at the Studio Museum, because they all came to the museum. When I do tours and talk about these artists, people are genuinely amazed.

How has the reinstallation been received by visitors?

The response has been overwhelmingly positive. People have told me they’ve come back multiple times since the galleries opened, specifically for “Reimagine African American Art,” and the galleries have gotten really good press. People are learning a lot, which makes me feel really good, because that’s what I want. I want people to learn this history, because it’s so important. The African American community here in Detroit is a very strong presence with a strong history, and this is part of that. There’s a genuine interest in learning more about African American art. Sometimes, for example, before we had these galleries, people would ask, what were African American artists doing during slavery? And the answer is, of course, that people like Duncanson managed to carve out careers under extraordinary circumstances. Now we’re able to show that artists like him and Henry Ossawa Tanner were really quite exceptional.

A museum gallery with deep red walls displays several framed artworks alongside a wall label, while a dark wood upholstered sofa sits elevated on a platform in a corner alcove. — Thomas Day’s sofa alongside works by African American artists of the WPA. Courtesy of the Detroit Institute of Arts

Did anything about the initial visitor response surprise you?

Collectors of African American art are familiar with the names of many of the artists in this exhibition, because they are in books, they are in surveys of African American art and their work is sought after in those circles. We ran an early focus group of people who weren’t art historians but were very familiar with this art. There’s a piece of furniture in the galleries, a sofa, by Thomas Day, an African American furniture maker from North Carolina who ran his own company and had employees. He was fantastic. I showed the sofa to the focus group, and what surprised me was how they responded to it. They were talking about it in terms of its qualities as an object, and while they liked a lot of the artwork in the show, they really loved this piece of furniture. They started talking about it almost as if it were a person. I’ve never experienced something quite like that; they were just drawn in by it.

I have to ask, do you have a favorite artwork in the show?

I always get out of that question by joking that I’m a Gemini, so it changes all the time. But honestly, as a curator, I can’t really have a favorite. If you ask me at 10 a.m., I’ll give you one answer, and by 3 p.m., it’s changed, because I kind of fall in love with each piece. Art has always just made me very happy, and I love learning about the artists. Plus, as much as I love African American art, I see a lot of art as connected. People would say to me, you studied German art, so how is it you’re now doing African American art? But I don’t approach it as something different. A number of African American artists, like Vincent Smith, would talk to me about how their work drew on German Expressionism, and I could see that in his paintings. He was a Black Arts Movement artist who concentrated on working-class people, on the Civil Rights Movement and the struggle, and his work is very expressionistic and wonderful. And nowadays, a lot of artists incorporate many cultures in their work. It’s interconnected.