Oral history interview with Dana Chandler
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 4 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 51 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Chandler, Dana, 1941-
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: African-American Master Artists in Residence Program
label: Names
content: Massachusetts College of Art -- Students
label: Names
content: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
label: Names
content: Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.) -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Simmons College. Art and Music Dept. -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Andrews, Benny, 1930-2006
label: Names
content: Bearden, Romare (1911-1988)
label: Names
content: Catlett, Elizabeth (1915-2012)
label: Names
content: Mazur, Michael, 1935-2009
label: Names
content: Tovish, Harold, 1921-2008
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Occupation
content: Educators -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Occupation
content: Printmakers -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Topic
content: African American artists
label: Topic
content: African American painters
label: Topic
content: African American educators
label: Topic
content: African American printmakers
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators. Funding for the transcription of this interview provided by the Newland Foundation.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Chandler, Dana, 1941-
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Dana Chandler (1941- ) is an African American painter, printmaker, and educator from Boston, Massachussets.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 89 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1993 March 11-May 5
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.chandl93
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Dana Chandler conducted 1993 March 11-May 5, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Chandler remembers his childhood in the Black community of Roxbury, Massachussets, with numerous siblings, pugnacious, hard-drinking longshoreman father, and mother who was the linchpin of the family; precocity as a reader and child artist; attendance at Saturday morning children's art classes at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and at Boston Educational High School where needed discipline was instilled in him by its all-white faculty; and as an assistant at school after graduation (1959-61).
label: Scope and Contents
content: Chandler talks about his awareness of budding civil rights movement; his attendance (1962-67) at Massachusetts College of Art while supporting his new, young family and working for the Jamaica Plain Area Planning Action Council which was funded by the federal Model Cities program; his first exhibitions (1967), in a liberal local church and a black businessmen's club; the exhibition (1969) "Twelve Black Artists from Boston," at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University; and his involvement, along with Harold Tovish and Michael Mazur, in the group, Artists Against the War.
label: Scope and Contents
content: He recalls his initiation of the exhibition, "Afro-American Artists/New York and Boston," at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1970, for which he was given no credit; his position as an unpaid cultural commentator for a Black newspaper and radio station; his politically-charged paintings and prints from the late 1960s onward; his meetings with senior Black artists, such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett Mora, and Benny Andrews; and his steady espousal of confrontation.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Chandler discusses teaching at Simmons College, Boston, 1971 to present; his creation in 1974 of the African-American Master Artists-in-Residence Program (AMARP), Northeastern University, Boston, and his direction of it until 1993, when he was relieved of the position by the University.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Chandler discusses his exhibition at Northeastern University in 1976, "If the Shoe Fits, Hear It!" under the name Akin Duro, and its evidence of the respect in which he was held; the loss of much of his work in a studio fire; and his current large-scale graphic work.