Augusta Savage's Clay Archive (1892-1962): A Teaching-Artist in the Harlem Renaissance
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https://doi.org/10.17979/ijaber.2025.2.3.11918Abstract
Augusta Savage, African American sculptor and educator, was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. This article proposes an exploration of her pedagogical practice—scarcely documented—through what we call her clay-archive, a speculative corpus that brings together student testimonies, fragmentary records, and apocryphal sources. The research delves into her teaching during the first half of the twentieth century, considering her biography as a means of accessing her methodology and her relationship to the materiality of clay. From a perspective that weaves together art, life, and teaching, the article offers a reading of Savage as an artist-educator, shedding light on a legacy marginalized due to her gender, race, and class. In doing so, it seeks to incorporate this counter-hegemonic reference into the narratives of art education, connecting figures like Savage with the diversity present in today’s classrooms.
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