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Ebony Museum of Art

The displays at the Ebony Museum of Arts, 1034 14th St., downtown Oakland,
are permanent—Tues.-Sat., 11a.m. to 6 p.m. (763-0141); call for appointment
or group tours.

30 Jack London Village Suites 208-209F
Oakland, CA 94607 Aissatoui Vernita, Director Phone: (510) 763-0746

back to news February 7 - April 18, 2004 found:
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=12-30-03&storyID=18004

By ESTELLE JELINEK (12-30-03)

(...)I decided to continue down 14th St. and cross the freeway to visit the
Ebony Museum of Arts. Just a few blocks from downtown Oakland, I found
myself in an entirely different world, a wide, tree-lined street of
residential homes and modern apartment buildings, before I reached the green
expanse of Lowell Park just across from the museum.

A continent apart from the African-American Museum, literally and
figuratively, the Ebony Museum is housed in an old, gated Victorian, its
three floors of small rooms crammed with artifacts celebratory of
pre-colonial cultures. Aissatoui Avola Vernita, the petite, elderly artist,
curator, and resident of the museum, gave me a tour of her private
collection of African art and antiquities, including shields and masks of
cowrie shells and intricately beaded crowns, most from Ghana, Congo, and
Nigeria.

Up a narrow, circling metal staircase to the attic floor, I gazed in wonder
at Vernita’s Soul Food collection, which she collaged from dried vegetables
and bones, her Black Degradation Art collection, and a room strewn with all
sizes and variety of black dolls.

This museum preserves and presents African American art, and promotes greater appreciation of the African American heritage. Tours are available.
Tues-Sat, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sun, noon-6 p.m.
1034 14th St,. (510) 763-0141