Hale Hall, located on the South Oval, houses the Black Cultural Center and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and one of the largest Black art collections in the country. Credit: Phoebe Helms | Lantern Reporter
This story was updated July 31, 2022 to appear in the Buckeyebound Edition distributed Aug. 1.
Hale Hall, which is known to host events, exhibitions and meetings, also houses an art collection worth more than $1.5 million.
The Frank W. Hale Black Cultural Center boasts one of the largest collections of Black art in the country, according to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s website. The collection comprises over 750 pieces of art from artists around the world, Larry Williamson, former director of the center, said.
Named after Frank W. Hale Jr., vice provost for the Office of Minority Affairs from 1978-1988, the center is located in Hale Hall at 154 W. 12th Ave. Hale placed special emphasis on prioritizing art within the space, which is what ultimately sets it apart from other Black culture centers, he said.
“Culture centers are basically known for what it is that they have,” Williamson said. “Dr. Hale’s emphasis of wanting to have visual artwork in it, it really helped our art center be recognized for the arts.”
Some of the works in the collection, according to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s website, include “King’s Life” by Larry Winston Collins, which chronicles some of the most iconic moments in Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, and “Zero” by local artist Charles Hollingsworth, which Williamson said is one of his personal favorites.
“Our art ranges from being functional to being just a lot of famous art pieces that are related to African culture and African American culture,” Andre Brown, interim director of the Hale Black Cultural Center, said.
The center is also set apart from other spaces on campus because of the representation it provides for Black students, Brown said.
“A lot of places on campus you don’t get to see imagery — positive imagery — of Black Americans,” Brown said. “I think it celebrates that.”
Williamson worked under Hale’s direct supervision, according to his Ohio State Black Alumni Society page, and is responsible for collecting more than 80 percent of the works currently held by the center in his more than 30 years at Ohio State, he said.
“It’s an asset because you can walk in and see some of the top artwork in the nation,” Williamson said.
Williamson said he and Hale put in a tremendous amount of work to find the art currently displayed at Hale Hall. He said they connected with people they knew could donate well-known works and knocked on the doors of local artists within the community.
From realism to abstract, South Africa to the Caribbean, the artwork in the center represents a wide variety of genres and groups, Williamson said.
“There’s a lot of meaning behind each of these pieces,” he said. “Seeing a piece from an aesthetic perspective is one thing, but once you know the meaning of the piece, it could change your perspective.”
Making the art collection one of the focal points of the Hale Black Cultural Center has been instrumental in ensuring Ohio State continues to have one of the premier cultural centers in the country and provides a unique representation of the Black experience, Williamson said.
“Art is culture,” Williamson said. “So anytime you walk into our center, you have a better understanding of the culture, what we’re trying to present and the relevance of the African American experience.”
