We hope you can join us for WPI’s next virtual event on the works of Romare Bearden. We will be joined by Esther Adler, Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints at The Museum of Modern Art.

Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual
Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 12:00 pm ET
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_r75HjUFCRJyEPaSMgnYFXQ


In 1971, the Museum of Modern Art presented Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual, a landmark exhibition for both the artist and the museum. Celebrating Romare Bearden’s mastery of collage, this solo show marked an advance in the broader recognition and visibility of African American artists within the mainstream. This presentation will explore the context in which this project developed, the organization of the exhibition itself, and its legacy. Ms. Adler will draw on research done in the museum’s archives for the 2022 publication Romare Bearden: Patchwork Quilt, a focused study of the collage in MoMA’s collection that also appeared on the 1971 exhibition catalogue cover. That work is currently on view in MoMA’s galleries, in a room dedicated to Bearden’s work in the collection.

Esther Adler is Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints at The Museum of Modern Art. Most recently she organized the final presentation of Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction (2025) in New York, and New Ground: Jacob Samuel and Contemporary Etching (2023). Past exhibitions include Joseph E. Yoakum: What I Saw (2021), Betye Saar: The Legends of Black Girl’s Window (with Christophe Cherix, 2019), Charles White: A Retrospective (2018), and Charles White—Leonardo da Vinci. Curated by David Hammons (2017). Her publications include the related exhibition catalogues for these projects, as well as Romare Bearden: Patchwork Quilt (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2022) and Charles White: Black Pope (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2017). 

Ms. Adler joined the museum staff in 2005, and has also worked at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden as a graduate fellow, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has a BA from Brandeis University, and an MA from the University of Maryland.

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