Saving Bannister: A Conversation with Ed Shein, Barnaby Evans, and Ray Rickman Nov. 2nd

The Bannister Legacy Lives On – that’s the hope of the group working hard to make sure that happens for now, and for all those who come after. At 5pm today, Thursday, November 2nd, a free and open to the public event will be held at the RISD Museum Metcalf Auditorium, Chace Center, 20 N Main St, in Providence.

Stages of Freedom presents Mr. Shein, a prominent art collector, in conversation with Waterfire’s Barnaby Evans and Stages of Freedom’s Ray Rickman, as he recounts his amazing story of amassing this Bannister collection of landscape paintings and selling them to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, securing their preservation and Bannister’s legacy for all time.  

Ed Shein will discuss his groundbreaking work placing the paintings of Edward Mitchell Bannister, America’s foremost Black artist, in the Smithsonian Institute. In the early 1970s, a young ambitious Ed Shein from Providence, scoured the city to locate paintings by Edward Mitchell Bannister, the once famous African American Rhode Island artist. He ended up finding over 200. In doing so, he reintroduced Bannister to the art world, important museums, and prominent collectors such as Oprah Winfrey, and restored him to his rightful place in the national spotlight.

The event is free and open to the public but registration is required at:  StagesofFreedom . Contact Ray Rickman, Executive Director of Stages of Freedom: (401) 421-0606 [email protected] for more information.