The crossroads of humanity and holiness meet in the works of lifelong Bostonian Allan Rohan Crite (1910–2007), who will at long last be at the center of an exhibition in a major Boston museum. Presented in collaboration with the Boston Athenaeum, Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory will raise questions of whose legacy is preserved and what stories a metropolis reveals—and pay homage to a seminal African American artist whose work celebrated, recorded, and spoke to Boston’s Black community.
Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade
Robert T. Freeman: Allan Crite - American Griot, 2025
October 14, 2025 – February 10, 2026
Image Credits:
Innsbruck Court Glassworks (active Innsbruck, 1570-1591), Black Glass Madonna, 1570-1591. Lampworked and pressed glass on wood mount, 52.5 x 28.8 cm (20 11/16 x 11 5/16 in.) Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Allan Rohan Crite (American, 1910–2007), School's Out, 1936. Oil on canvas, 76.9 x 91.8 cm (30 1/4 x 36 1/8 in.) Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from General Services Administration. Courtesy of the Allan Rohan Crite Research Institute and Library
Robert T. Freeman: Allan Crite - American Griot, 2025 [rendering] © Robert T. Freeman. Image courtesy of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory and Visions of Black Madonnas are supported in part by Barbara and Amos Hostetter, the Abrams Foundation, the Barr Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, The Tom and Katherine Stemberg Fund for Exhibitions and Programs, Fredericka and Howard Stevenson, and by an endowment grant from the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Robert T. Freeman: Allan Crite - American Griot, 2025 is supported in part by Barbara and Amos Hostetter, the Abrams Foundation, the Barr Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Barbara Lee Program Fund, The Tom and Katherine Stemberg Fund for Exhibitions and Programs, and Fredericka and Howard Stevenson.
The Artist-in-Residence program is supported in part by Lizbeth and George Krupp and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and directed by Pieranna Cavalchini, Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art. Funding is also provided for site-specific installations of new work on the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade on Evans Way.
The Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
