exhibitions

Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys

/ Bonnie Newman Davis

Courtesy Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Courtesy Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys is coming to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Nov. 22, 2025-March 1, 2026. The exhibition from the collection of musical and cultural icons Swizz Beatz (Kassem Dean) and Alicia Keys is expansive and features over 130 works of art by 40 Black artists from Africa, Europe, the United States, and the Caribbean.

Among the artists featured are Derrick Adams, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kwame Brathwaite, Nick Cave, Barkley Hendricks, Arthur Jafa, Titus Kaphar, Esther Mahlangu, Meleko Mokgosi, Odili Donald Odita, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Gordon Parks, Ebony G. Patterson, Deborah Roberts, Jamel Shabazz, Amy Sherald, Mickalene Thomas, and Kehinde Wiley.

These celebrated “giants” are expanding the art canon of greats in a big, bold way. They include legendary photographers, iconic contemporary artists, as well as emerging artists. And among the art on view are monumental works that tower in scale and thought. Giants is also a nod to the collectors’ passion for lifting up the human spirit:

“We need to be our most giant selves: to think our most giant thoughts, express ourselves in the biggest way possible, and give ourselves permission to be giants.”
—Alicia Keys

As artists who strive to support other artists and collect from the heart, Keys and Beatz are guided by an outward intention that regards their family of acquired works as “by the artist, for the artist, with the people.”

Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys is organized by Kimberli Gant, Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, and Indira A. Abiskaroon, Curatorial Assistant, Modern and Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum. The coordinating curator at VMFA is Valerie Cassel Oliver, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

The exhibition is organized by the Brooklyn Museum.

When/Where

November 22, 2025 — March 1, 2026

Altria Group Gallery, NewMarket GalleryTickets

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General Public Tickets
Available beginning September 8.

A PRESCRIPTION FOR CHANGE

/ Bonnie Newman Davis

How Black voices shaped healthcare in Virginia

Visitors discuss the contributions of Blacks in the medical professions recently at the Black
History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia. Photos by Bonnie Newman Davis.

A landmark exhibition that chronicles Virginia’s Black hospitals, medical educators, physicians, pharmacists and professional organizations opened Sept. 18, 2024 at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia.

“A Prescription for Change: How Black Voices Shaped Healthcare in Virginia,” was created and curated by Elvatrice Parker Belsches, B.A., B.S. Pharm, M.A., and features powerful vintage photographs, with accompanying text, of 1919 graduates of the Dixie Hospital Training School for Nurses at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University). Also part of the exhibit is a 1915 group photograph that includes members of the Tri-State Dental Society Conference and founding members of Chi Eta Phi Sorority, a national nursing organization, which had a chapter in Richmond.

The exhibition also showcases rare photos of hospitals created by Black professionals and individuals in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Of notable significance are rare artifacts such as the scales and weights used by Dr. David A. Ferguson, D.D.S., the founding father of the National Dental Association and two dental instruments that reportedly belonged to Dr. Peter B. Ramsey, who began practicing dentistry in the 1880s. There are medical instruments and cabinets from The Claytor Clinic in Roanoke, Virginia. This clinic is believed to be the first multi-specialty clinic in Southwest Virginia that was founded and staffed by Black medical practitioners when it opened in 1948.

Elvatrice Belsches, middle, points to highlights of the exhibit, “A Prescription for Change: How Black Voices Shaped Healthcare in Virginia,” that currently is on view through March 15, 2025 at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia in Richmond, Va. Ms. Belsches, a public historian, is the exhibit’s creator and curator.)

The exhibition is divided into eight sections:

*The Early Years

*Education

*Physicians, Optometrists and Chiropractors

*Dentists

*Pharmacy

*Nurses, Midwifery and Doulas

*The Black Hospital Movement

*Organizations

Included in the exhibit are works by 14 artists, exploring physical, emotional, psychological, and historical aspects of healthcare disparities faced by Black patients. Participating artists include P. Muzi Branch, S. Ross Browne, Unicia Buster, Kyle Epps, A. Yhayha Hargrove, Barbara Hobson, William E. Johnson, Jowarnise, David Marion, Amiri Richardson Keys, Jay Sharp, Jeff Taylor, Sir James Thornhill, Dennis Winston, and Vashti Woods. Each artist brings a unique perspective to this critical dialogue, creating a multifaceted narrative that challenges viewers to confront uncomfortable truths and envision a more equitable future in healthcare.

Where: The Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, 122 W. Leigh St., Richmond, Virginia 23219. The exhibit continues through March 15, 2025.

Meet the exhibit creator, curator and historian