Valerie J. Maynard

Napoleon Jones-Henderson and Valerie J. Maynard, whose legacy is stewarded by the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation, were selected as 2024–2026 CARA Fellows for their significant contributions to the transformation of arts ecosystems. Both Jones-Henderson and Maynard showcase lifelong dedication to centering and celebrating Black identities and experiences. Maynard herself was a pivotal figure in the Black Arts Movement, and Jones-Henderson remains one of the last of the original ten members still active in AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), among other community movements. Working across mediums such as textiles, sculpture, printmaking, and community gathering, both artists’ transformative practices honor Afro-diasporic histories, both familial and cultural, while paving the way for future generations of artists through education.

Valerie J. Maynard (b. 1937 in Harlem, New York, d. 2022, Baltimore, MD) was a prolific sculptor, printmaker, designer, and educator. She has been internationally renowned for an artistic practice centered on Black resistance to social injustice, the beauty of Black life in spite of those injustices, and the impact of ancestral memory on the descendants of enslaved Africans. Her work has been featured in prominent collections including the Brooklyn Museum, the Library of Congress, and a retrospective at the Baltimore Museum of Art, among others. Since Maynard’s passing in 2022 her legacy has been stewarded by the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation, a non-profit trust intentionally established by the artist, composed of her collaborators, friends, and fellow artists. The mission of the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation is to sustain, expand, and preserve the legacy of Valerie J. Maynard, her art, and her impact on a global scale, while also nurturing the next generation of Black women artists through residencies, arts education initiatives, and convenings that serve to contextualize and illuminate Maynard’s work and philosophy. The Fellowship will support the sustainability of the Foundation’s critical work, “making the world possible” for future generations, as Maynard’s dear friend Alexis De Veaux said Maynard once did for her.

Portrait by Dena Fisher, Courtesy the Estate of Valerie J. Maynard