When “A Beacon to the World: Art from the Sylvia Smith Lewis ’74 and Byron E. Lewis Sr. Collection” opened in February 2024, it was a historic moment for the legacy of African American artists and the Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA). This art installation, which closed in October 2024, marked the most significant alumnae acquisition (over 25 paintings and sculptures) of African American art ever gifted to SCMA. What a coincidence that this art show opened during Black History Month!
Landmark Alumnea Gift
“Yes, it’s the largest gift of artwork by Black artists for sure. I looked back through our credit lines, and the majority of works we (Smith College Museum of Art) had previously by Black artists were purchased by the museum rather than received as gifts,” according to Emma Chubb, PhD (she/her) Charlotte Feng Ford ’83 Curator of Contemporary Art.
Smith College president Sarah Willie-LeBreton expressed her gratitude for this extraordinary donation: “Smith is deeply grateful to Sylvia and Byron Lewis for this remarkable gift. The Museum of Art is among the college’s most valued resources for teaching, research, and the enjoyment of our students, faculty, staff, and community. Its collection is both broad and deep. The gift of these works adds more strength to an area the museum is dedicated to expanding. Smith welcomes visitors from all over the world to see the Lewis Collection. It has been a pleasure and an honor for me to get to know Sylvia and share her joy in the work of these great artists.”
The Lewis & Lewis collection includes over twenty-five paintings and sculptures by renowned artists such as Richmond Barthé, Romare Bearden, Betty Blayton-Taylor, Frederick J. Brown, Dox Thrash, Louis Delsarte, Elton Fax, Richard J. Watson, and more.
Legacy of Art
To explain their gift decision, Sylvia Smith Lewis said: “Our art gifts are part of our legacy. It’s about gratitude to our ancestors and respecting these Black artists. I felt honored and grateful to Smith for my excellent education and lifelong friendships. We appreciated the consideration and time (several visits to our home and warehouses and time spent reviewing SCMA’s collection to see alignments and enhancements!). The Smith College team took a serious approach to choosing each piece in the collection.
The emotional, spiritual, and educational benefits mattered. Finding a good home for our art is like an adoption. We wanted to find the best home for each artwork. Our private art collection is ready to step out of the darkness of being in storage. Despite numerous requests, we did not want to sell to private collectors or present in galleries or auctions. We were appalled that most art is only seen in private collections! Art needs to be seen! We’re thankful that visitors are seeing our art on the Northampton campus. It warms our hearts every time we hear about busloads of local school children visiting our art or special events featuring our art. We chose Smith College not only because it is my alma mater but because the campus museum is doing tremendous reparative work.
We have already gifted art to the Studio Museum of Harlem, several Smithsonian museums, and HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). We seek to eventually donate all of our art to worthy museums and public libraries. Our primary collection includes African American, Caribbean, and African artists. When all is said and done about African Americans and our complicated history, our art will bring about understanding, positive change, and a beacon to the world.”
Sylvia Smith Lewis ’74, an independent arts consultant, journalist, and community volunteer, has long advocated for Black artists in several genres, including visual arts, literature, theater, music, dance, and film. Her dedication, alongside her husband Byron Lewis’ work through his pioneering agency, UniWorld Group, Inc., the world’s largest and oldest Black advertising agency, has provided platforms for African American artists whose work often went unrepresented and marginalized.
Since 1969, Byron’s corporate offices have served as rare art galleries for Black artists to showcase their work, ensuring that the talent and vision of Black creatives reached a broader audience. He often reflected that visiting white executives were awestruck seeing such unique and energized artwork. Byron said it was vital to give himself and his employees an inspired, creative environment that sustained them and helped motivate their pioneering and innovative work.
Beverly Morgan-Welch ’74, senior deputy director of external affairs for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, who serves on both the Smith College Board of Trustees and the SCMA Visiting Committee, and is a fellow member of the Class of 1974 with Sylvia Lewis, emphasized the significance of the gift: “At this time, cultural institutions are seeking to include women and BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Color] artists in their collections and exhibitions.
“Sylvia, always an advocate for Smith and Black artists, has stepped forward to help elevate these artists and SCMA’s collection. She is strategic and generous beyond measure by gifting Smith the spectacular collection she and Byron have lovingly built over their lives. In choosing Smith as the repository for these works, she has affirmed the college’s dedication to the recognition of these artists . . . ensuring that generations of Smith students, faculty, and visitors will be exposed to their work, to learn and be inspired,” Morgan-Welch added.
SCMA director Jessica Nicoll also highlighted the importance of the Lewis and Lewis donation.
“The Smith College Museum of Art is committed to diversifying its collection, with particular attention to acquiring work by artists of color in all periods and media. This transformative gift from Sylvia and Byron Lewis deepens and expands SCMA’s representation of work by artists of African descent. Valuably, it also tells the story of visionary and activist collectors,” said Jessica Nicoll.
The Lewises’ impact extends beyond the collection itself. Their lifelong commitment to activism and cultural promotion resonates through Sylvia’s foundational role as a student in co-founding Smith’s Africana Studies Department, Black Student Alliance, and Black Alums of Smith College (BASC), which grew from her co-leadership as part of the largest class of Black women in Smith’s history. Sylvia’s dedication to Smith as a student and alumna reflects her broader vision of cultural institutions’ role in developing us as whole human beings.
The exhibition’s timing held a special significance, as Sylvia and all visiting alums had the opportunity to view the works during their 50th reunion in spring 2024. The acquisition stands as both a personal legacy and a broader cultural collaboration, elevating the work of Black artists while reinforcing Smith College’s ongoing efforts to create a more inclusive art landscape.
Emma Chubb, SCMA Curator of Contemporary Art, Sylvia S. Lewis ’74; Marea Wexler, Development Director; Aprille Gallant, SCMA Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.
An SCMA staff member admires ‘Nude’ by artist Dox Thrash from the Lewis & Lewis Collection.
Background: Our first art donations were gifts to Black colleges and the Studio Museum of Harlem. The Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were the first patrons of African American art. Most white American museums, colleges, art schools, and galleries routinely rejected African American artists. Until the 1960s, legal segregation was the law. African American artists were the leaders who helped our Black communities to ‘make a way out of no way.’
Living with our art is inspiring, empowering, and healing. Buying art was our way of supporting Black artists, preserving history, and maintaining community memory. We did not think of ourselves as ‘collectors’ the way that that word is used today. Living and working with activists and creative artists, we were blessed with their friendships and associations. Most of our art was acquired with love through friendships, not by gallery visits or hired consultants.
Through community activism and engagement, we loved art’s platforms for dialogue.
My husband, Byron, was among the co-founders of Studio of Museum of Harlem, along with other business and community folks. He helped pay for the first Harlem space and donated one of its first pieces of art—a work called ‘Stagger Lee’ by Frederick J. Brown—that opened the museum’s doors. Black artists like Betty Blayton and Romare Bearden and business and community leaders used their limited resources to start museums and art studios to support and train Black artists, acquire Black art, and provide professional guidance.
So, it is with great joy and pride that our gifts are helping Smith College’s museum in its mission to support Black artists. “We hope that our art gift will also contribute to wellness and healing to everyone who sees it,” said Sylvia.
The Suzannah J. Fabing Programs Fund supported this art installation
