‘Like I'm standing in a room of giants’: Meet Elana Casey, new associate director of the Augusta Savage Gallery at UMass Amherst

Elana Casey, the new associate director of the Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is new to the Pioneer Valley, but not to promoting art – especially Black art – in the community.

“When it comes to art, I love that it's a language,” she said. “I think I love it the same way I love writing, in the sense that I love that it's an opportunity to collage our different narratives and stories and to fit our experiences into a material and medium.”

Casey, an artist, curator, writer, and arts administrator, comes to her new role from Washington, D.C, where she was embedded in the city’s art scene. There, she was the department chair of the visual arts department at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where her work included directing the school’s Ellington Gallery and expanding programming at the school through partnerships with museums, especially those that champion up-and-coming artists and artists of color.

Before that, she also worked as a teacher at NationHouse, an Afrocentric school, where she created an art history curriculum with a specific focus on Black art and artists.

“It was really exciting to think about everything from African-centered lens, and it inspired the ways that I shaped my curriculums moving forward as an art educator,” she said. “When I saw this position, where I had the opportunity to transition out of education and to [become] a gallerist and center the voices of the African diaspora, it was really exciting for me. It felt like something that was in alignment with my interest in curatorial work and education and writing and supporting Black emerging artists,” she said.

That experience shaped her mission for working with students going forward, framed around the question, “How can I present them with information that looks like them?”

Casey’s mission isn’t only to educate people about existing Black artists, but, just as much, to connect and uplift Black artists who have not yet had foundational professional opportunities for their artistic careers.

“I know what it looks like to champion a Michelangelo or a Picasso because I had no idea there was a Nick Cave or a Kehinde Wiley,” she said. “I know what it looks like for students to wonder if they'll ever see themselves in an art museum.”

In her previous role, she said, “I had students who not only saw themselves in the art world, but performed it as well. They were able to command top dollar; they were able to recognize renowned and famous Black artists and then see themselves doing that, and see that as a possibility for them because they had access to it, and it was in the world and it was in front of them. That's why [access to the art world] is important for me – because I know how it can change the trajectory of someone's life like it changed the trajectory of mine.”

The Augusta Savage Gallery sits inside the first floor of the New Africa House, home to the college’s W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies. The gallery, named for renowned sculptor Augusta Savage, hosts exhibits “selected for their aesthetic integrity and their ability to enlighten the viewer on such issues as race, ethnicity, class, and cultural identity,” according to a press release.

It’s also the building where esteemed author and civil rights activist James Baldwin used to work, which Casey appreciates. By working there, she said, “It feels like I'm standing in a room of giants.”

The gallery is closed for the summer but scheduled to reopen in October. The next show has not yet been announced, but Casey said that in her new role, she wants to connect with emerging artists in the area.

“Don't be a stranger,” she said. “I'm really interested in what it looks like to collaborate and work with people, and if we aren't aligned in regards to programming, I mean, I'm also an ear for you to show me your work, so we can brainstorm and we can think about what the development of your career looks like. I don't want people to feel like I'm inaccessible, because the art world, at times, can be an inaccessible place, and I don't want to be a perpetuator of that.”

“I have the job to make this gallery a substantial place and to bridge the gaps and to figure out what does it look like to actually skyrocket it and make it profound and brilliant, at least while I'm here. At minimum, put on some really dope programming,” she laughed. “At max, really create a hub for Black excellence in art.”

Carolyn Brown can be reached at [email protected].