Black Arts Council

{{Short description|U.S. arts organization}}

The Black Arts Council (BAC) was an arts organization located in Los Angeles and founded in 1968, to advocate for African-American artists and support their community.{{cite report|editor-last1=Blaine|editor-first1=John|editor-last2=Baker|editor-first2=Decia|title=Community Arts of Los Angeles|hdl=10139/2728|page=2|chapter=Single Arts Experience Orientation|publisher=Los Angeles Community Art Alliance|year=1973|oclc=912321031|df=mdy-all}} Founded by Cecil Fergerson and Claude Booker (black art preparators who worked at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA), the organization comprised African-American artists, staff members, and other city residents who aimed to promote African-American art in Los Angeles. When the Black Arts Council was founded in 1968, every LACMA board member was white.{{cite book|last1=Cooks|first1=Bridget R.|authorlink1=Bridget R. Cooks|title=Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum|page=87|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|year=2011|isbn=9781558498754|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxHCWUnRGyQC&pg=PA87|df=mdy-all}}

The organization grew to over 1,000 members in two years.{{cite news|last1=Holmes|first1=Emory|title=A Pit Bull in the World of Fine Art|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-feb-14-tm-7907-story.html|access-date=14 December 2014|work=Los Angeles Times|date=1999-02-14|df=mdy-all}} It not only pressured LACMA to organize exhibitions for African-American artists, but also did extensive work supporting artists outside the museum.{{cite web|title=Two Centuries of Black American Art at LACMA: Who's Who|author=|url=http://www.lacma.org/whos-who|website=LACMA|accessdate=14 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141215005938/http://www.lacma.org/whos-who|archive-date=15 December 2014|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}} The BAC organized student field trips to art exhibits, gave lectures at schools, and curated art exhibitions at various community locations and events.

The BAC's advocacy produced results in the form of two LACMA exhibitions: Three Graphic Artists: Charles White, David Hammons, and Timothy Washington in 1971, and Panorama in 1972, featuring Noah Purifoy, John Outterbridge, and Betye Saar.{{cite web|last1=Sirmans|first1=Franklin|title=Remembering Cecil Fergerson (1931–2013)|url=http://unframed.lacma.org/2013/09/23/remembering-cecil-fergerson-1931-2013|website=LACMA Unframed|date=23 September 2013 |accessdate=14 December 2014|df=mdy-all}} These exhibits paved the path for LACMA's 1976 exhibition Two Centuries of Black American Art, which traveled to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, and the Brooklyn Museum.

The BAC ceased activities in 1974 following Booker's death.