Looking at the choreographer through several lenses, the exhibition is broken down into ten sections: Southern Imagery, Black Spirituality, Black Migration, Black Liberation, Black Women, Ailey’s Collaborators, Black Music, Ailey’s Influences, After Ailey, and a Performance Program.
The fifth floor of the museum is organized as an open floor plan with many freestanding artworks placed throughout and a large-scale video stretching across half of the circumference of the gallery. Each curated section reflects on moments of history through painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography– the lifetime of Alvin Ailey, who died due to complications from AIDS in 1989, at the age of 58.
Alvin Ailey’s work visually interpreted the Black experience wholly– the challenges and joys– as a way to move the dial forward. His life was not in the periphery, but out front, bold, and dynamic.