Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Houston-based artist Nathaniel Donnett has a newly commissioned public art installation called Acknowledgement: The Historic Polyrhythm of Being(s) on view outside CAMH (on the corner of Montrose and Bissonnet). In this CAMH Connects Donnett shares his inspiration, process, and the questions he asks as he creates new work. Donnett focuses on Black social life and the everyday aesthetic and in this project worked with local organizations and youth in the Houston neighborhoods of Third, Fourth, and Fifth Ward to initiate backpack exchanges that became a part of the final installation.
About the Series
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, we’re doing everything we can to flatten the curve — but even though the museum is closed, and we’re working from home, we still talk to artists around the world every day.
About Nathaniel Donnett
Nathaniel Donnett lives and works in Houston, Texas. Donnett received his BA in Fine Arts from Texas Southern University and is a 2021 MFA Candidate in Painting at the Yale University School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut. Donnett is a current recipient of a 2020 Dean’s Critical Practice Research Grant and a 2020 Art and Social Justice Initiative Grant. Donnett is a recipient of a 2019 (Fresh Arts Houston) and 2018 (Project Row Houses) community-based art project commission for his ongoing What’s The New News project and a 2015 Houston Downtown Vehicular Wayfinding Signs Project public art commission. Donnett has also received the 2017/2011 Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grant, a 2014 Harpo Foundation Grant, 2015/2011 Idea Fund/Andy Warhol Foundation Grant, and a 2010 Artadia Award. His work has been shown widely, including at Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach; Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, Florida; Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas; McColl Center for Art + Innovation, Charlotte, North Carolina; American University Museum at The Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Hotel Theresa, Harlem, New York; Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, North Carolina; Community Artist’s Collective, Houston, Texas; Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas; Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas; The University Museum, Houston, Texas, and The New Museum, New York, New York.
©Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2020.
Houston-based artist Nathaniel Donnett has a newly commissioned public art installation called Acknowledgement: The Historic Polyrhythm of Being(s) on view outside CAMH (on the corner of Montrose and Bissonnet). In this CAMH Connects Donnett shares his inspiration, process, and the questions he asks as he creates new work. Donnett focuses on Black social life and the everyday aesthetic and in this project worked with local organizations and youth in the Houston neighborhoods of Third, Fourth, and Fifth Ward to initiate backpack exchanges that became a part of the final installation.
About the Series
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, we’re doing everything we can to flatten the curve — but even though the museum is closed, and we’re working from home, we still talk to artists around the world every day.
About Nathaniel Donnett
Nathaniel Donnett lives and works in Houston, Texas. Donnett received his BA in Fine Arts from Texas Southern University and is a 2021 MFA Candidate in Painting at the Yale University School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut. Donnett is a current recipient of a 2020 Dean’s Critical Practice Research Grant and a 2020 Art and Social Justice Initiative Grant. Donnett is a recipient of a 2019 (Fresh Arts Houston) and 2018 (Project Row Houses) community-based art project commission for his ongoing What’s The New News project and a 2015 Houston Downtown Vehicular Wayfinding Signs Project public art commission. Donnett has also received the 2017/2011 Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grant, a 2014 Harpo Foundation Grant, 2015/2011 Idea Fund/Andy Warhol Foundation Grant, and a 2010 Artadia Award. His work has been shown widely, including at Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach; Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, Florida; Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas; McColl Center for Art + Innovation, Charlotte, North Carolina; American University Museum at The Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Hotel Theresa, Harlem, New York; Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, North Carolina; Community Artist’s Collective, Houston, Texas; Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas; Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas; The University Museum, Houston, Texas, and The New Museum, New York, New York.
©Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2020.
![Virtual Dance Performance | Gend[H]er](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Opbf_4wIeYU/mqdefault.jpg "Virtual Dance Performance | Gend[H]er
Join Donna Crump and Kayla Collymore as they perform the premiere of the new work Gend[H]er in the exhibition, Wild Life: Elizabeth Murray & Jessi Reaves, and in celebration of Women’s History Month. Gend[H]er examines the reversal of gender roles and how they are portrayed through society’s stereotypes; how gender has played a role in the workforce ,and in the home amidst the pandemic. But let’s be clear, the piece really studies the Divine feminine energy. To possess your true Divine feminine energy is to embrace and have a balance of both masculine and feminine energies.
There are many sections of the work in its entirety which explores the Divine feminine via stories of Motherhood. The work addresses women’s health, sexuality, and power. It’s important because the piece celebrates women and gives a small insight on what it’s like to be a mother through the time capsule and also celebrates the modern-day mother.
Working with themes of love, trauma, and health, the process celebrates women and creates a space for the stories and experiences of women to be told. Two different themes, gender and motherhood bound by one common entity, Women.
About Donna Crump
Donna Crump is an award- winning choreographer, actress, and performing artist from New Orleans, Louisiana who has been dancing for over 30 years. She holds a BFA in Dance from Tulane University (New Orleans) and has also studied and created dance in New York, South Africa with the First Physical Dance Theatre, and in Brazil with the country’s premier dance company Grupo Corpo. Donna served as the resident choreographer for the Marigny Opera Ballet in New Orleans over the inaugural season in 2014/2015. Crump is a current performer and Artistic Director of her contemporary dance company, Good Dance Since 1984. Good Dance has performed nationally in New Orleans, Houston, Boston, Alabama, and more, receiving several arts awards for Best Choreography and Outstanding New Work.
Since founding Good Dance in 2012, Crump has produced several full length works, started the pre-professional division of Good Dance, and starred in several commercials and films alongside directors Spike Lee and Garrett Bradley. Crump played a lead role in the film America by Garrett Bradley which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. Crump quickly found her lead role touring several film festivals and museum openings including Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, The New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Since moving to Houston almost 4 years ago, Crump has premiered work at The MATCH and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Her most recent work Gend(H)er is premiering at CAMH on March 25,2021 at 6:30PM during Women’s History Month.
About Kayla Collymore
Kayla Collymore, a New Jersey native, graduated (Summa Cum Laude) from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey) with a BFA in Dance. Kayla has performed with several dance companies including METdance Company (Houston, Texas), Hou Ying Dance Theater (Beijing, China), Brian Brooks Moving Company (New York City, New York) and Stephen Petronio Company (apprentice). In addition to performing in Beijing she taught numerous local dance classes and founded the dance department at Limai International English School (Beijing, China). Her professional experience ranges into Dance for Film, guest artist residencies, and hosting master classes. She is an alumna of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and was voted 2017’s “Top 25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine. Collymore recently completed an 18-month international tour with Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake and is currently based in Houston, Texas as a freelance performer, dance educator, yoga instructor, and movement designer.
Visit our website to learn more about Wild Life: Elizabeth Murray & Jessi Reaves
https://camh.org/event/wild-life/
© Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2021.")
