Cameron Art Museum Welcomes Descendants Of USCT To A Homecoming Celebration
WILMINGTON, NC – Cameron Art Museum (CAM) will welcome the descendants of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) to a homecoming celebration on Saturday, November 11, and invites the community to join with FREE museum and event admission.
This November 11 marks the second anniversary of the unveiling of Boundless by artist Stephen Hayes. This contemporary monument pulls from its current storytellers as much as it does from its historical narratives. Long before the statue was erected on our grounds, the descendants of the USCT soldiers who fought during the Wilmington Campaign held and told these stories in their respective communities.
This November 11th, CAM will honor the men of the USCT through their continued family legacies. Join in for a day of fellowship through storytelling, music, reenactment, and more. Highlights include a Gospel performance by USCT Descendant Dr. Andrea Evans, the premiere of a new film documenting the USCT by award-winning filmmaker Adam Aphin, and a lecture by Dr. Sherwin Bryant, Associate Professor of African American Studies and History, and Director of the Center for African American History at North Western University.
CAM Cultural Curator Daniel Jones, who will lead a tour of Boundless at 3 PM that day, says, “Descendants Homecoming day is more than a weekend event; it’s a culmination of many generations, 150+ years of steadfast community building in Wilmington, the greater state of North Carolina and the nation as a whole.
[Wilmington’s] Forks Road battle site saw men from all over heed the call to fight for freedom. The USCT regiments would eventually muster out after the war ended, but the ideals and sentiments of the soldiers would help shape the communities wherever they found themselves postwar.
This Descendants Homecoming Day, we will continue to honor the family legacies of those listed on the back of Boundless and the communities they built.”
November 11 Schedule
10 AM-5 PM Living History and USCT Reenactors on the Grounds
10-11:30 AM Family Activities
11-11:30 AM USCT Reenactor Clark Morgan of the Ohio 5th Speaks at Boundless
11 AM-12 PM Spanish Language Tour
12 PM Gospel Selection by Dr. Andrea Evans, USCT Descendant in Reception Hall
12:30 PM Premiere of a new short film chronicling the oral histories of USCT descendants by filmmaker Adam Alphin
1:30 PM Lecture by Dr. Sherwin Bryant, Associate Professor of African American Studies and History and Director of the Center for African American History at North Western University. Presented by NC Humanities.
3 PM Tour of Boundless and the PNC USCT Park with Daniel Jones, CAM Cultural Curator
About Cameron Art Museum
Cameron Art Museum provides a cultural gathering place that enriches the lives of museum visitors and the community through high-quality exhibitions, lifelong learning in the arts, dynamic public programs, and stewardship and interpretation of the collection. CAM’s four core values are commitment to community, to lifelong learning in the arts, to support of artists, and to collecting, preserving, documenting, and interpreting a permanent collection of art. The museum has been a collecting institution since its inception, with approximately 4,000 objects in the permanent collection, with a primary and growing focus on modern art. The collection includes work by artists of national and international significance, used in changing thematic exhibitions, loan exhibitions, and for educational purposes. Cameron Art Museum is a non-profit fully reliant on the generosity of its donors. For more information, visit the museum’s website.
Feature image courtesy of Cameron Art Museum
Boundless image: Photograph by Alan Cradick