Opening November 16 at Historic Stagville, Maya Freelon: Whippersnappers will premiere large-scale sculptures, archival photographs, paintings, and collages that transform a former plantation. Whippersnappers will be on view from November 16, 2024, through January 25, 2025, at Historic Stagville. Exhibition hours are Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 am to 1 pm and by appointment. For viewings by appointment, contact stagville@dncr.nc.gov.
Fully titled Whippersnappers: Recapturing, Reviewing, and Reimagining the Lives of Enslaved Children in the United States, Freelon’s first large-scale installation featuring portraiture was born from her research of enslaved children highlighted in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. The site-responsive installation features new works on view in Stagville’s 1799 Bennehan House, the preserved home of the former plantation owners. Using thousands of pieces of tissue paper in a myriad of ways, Freelon has created a visual dreamscape through large-scale sculptures and quilts all utilizing her signature “bleeding” tissue paper techniques, alongside historical documents from the Library of Congress and other significant archives, and artifacts from the North Carolina Historic Sites Collection.
Works on view in the 1799 Bennehan House will span six rooms across two floors. Spaces include the attic, a downstairs room with many uses, including childbirth, and a former office where the names of newborn enslaved children were recorded as property. “Through Whippersnappers, I want to use the healing potential of art to shine a light on a subject often ignored and reclaim a space that was once used to disempower and oppress,” said Freelon. “I want visitors to move through the exhibition and leave remembering the innocence of childhood, which encourages collective healing.”
On view from November 16, 2024, through January 25, 2025, Whippersnappers is organized by Art on the Land, a North Carolina Historic Sites initiative seeking to activate sites of memory through artistic collaborations, place-based art, editorial offerings, and gatherings. Art on the Land is directed and curated by Director of North Carolina Historic Sites, Michelle Lanier, and Curator-at-Large, Johnica Rivers. On Whippersnappers, Lanier shares: “Maya Freelon’s powerful offering to our youngest ancestors will activate Stagville’s historic landscapes and interiors with a posture of healing through reclaiming and reframing memory."
Saturday, November 16 — Opening Day Events
On opening day, Saturday, November 16, the installation will have extended viewing hours from 10 am to 3 pm; Freelon will be on-site from noon to 3 pm for an artist roundtable. The public is invited to this free day of activities:
10:00 am: Whippersnappers opens for self-guided visits through 3 pm, with Historic Stagville guides and volunteers available to facilitate visitors’ experience. In addition to the primary installation in the 1799 Bennehan House, opening day visitors will experience a motion-activated soundscape inside Stagville’s massive barn built in 1860 by enslaved artisans and the largest stable in what was, at that time, Orange County. Calling In the Children was created by seven-time Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon and sound artist, scholar, and ethnomusicologist Dr. Allie Martin of Dartmouth College and the Black Sound Lab. The collaboration blends archival sounds, call and response, and jazz music recorded in the space during a pre-opening consecration of the grounds.
12:00 to 1:30 pm: Roundtable discussion with artist Maya Freelon, Director of North Carolina State Historic Sites, Michelle Lanier, and Curator-at-Large, Johnica Rivers. Refreshments will be served.
Saturday, December 14 — Community Tissue Quilt Workshop
On Saturday, December 14 from 10 am to 12 pm, visitors are invited to participate in a tissue quilt workshop. Open to all ages, Freelon will lead participants on a transformational, collective art-making journey. Advanced registration is required.