Birmingham museum hopes to recover missing art by first black artist to be exhibited there

The Birmingham Museum of Art is asking for the public’s help in locating art by Corietta Mitchell, the first black artist to have a solo exhibition at the museum during the city’s segregation era, local news outlet WVTM reports. The institution celebrates its 75th anniversary this year and is renewing its efforts to restore what it calls a missing part of its history.

Founded in 1951 when apartheid laws restricted black visitors to a designated day each week, the museum is now openly acknowledging its segregated past as part of a broader institutional reckoning. In March 1963, four months before Birmingham’s segregation ordinances were repealed, museum leadership quietly organized an exhibition for Mitchell, a towering figure in Birmingham’s black art scene.

Despite newspaper reports at the time, the museum said none of the works in the exhibition had been found. All that remains is an exhibition listing and a grainy photograph. Museum officials are asking anyone with information about Mitchell or her art to come forward.

“We are looking back and acknowledging our history – the good, the bad and the ugly,” museum director Graham Bottcher said in a statement.

The museum’s appeal comes as the American art world increasingly reimagines the legacy of black artists whose work has been ignored or marginalized by major institutions for decades. Major museums have recently mounted exhibitions aimed at correcting historical omissions and expanding the narrative about African American art. For example, museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art have mounted major exhibitions that trace the impact of the Harlem Renaissance and elevate lesser-known black artists, while other institutions have organized surveys and retrospectives that place historically unrecognized creators into a fuller context.

In addition, professional institutions such as the Studio Museum in Harlem, founded in 1968 as a dedicated art center for African American and overseas artists, continue to focus on the creativity and influence of black people in the broader history of art. The Studio Museum, which recently reopened its new building, has long focused on exhibitions, residencies, and public programs that connect historical and contemporary voices.

Locally, the search for Mitchell’s art also highlights how the museum is confronting its own institutional history. Restoring or documenting the work of artists like Mitchell not only fills gaps in museum collections, but also contributes to a more complete understanding of cultural heritage at a time when many museums are re-evaluating how and whose stories are told on their walls.