Art on Display

Explore the art on display in the permanent exhibition Moving History Forward during your visit to the Museum! The artwork in the galleries helps to visualize the faces, places and stories of Civil Rights in the North. 

Colorful Gallery Murals, 2026.

The Urban Civil Rights Museum in Harlem partnered with exhibition designers Local Projects to create the museum's permanent exhibition Moving History Forward. Printmaker and artist Fitiji Saint-Louis worked with Local Projects to print and create beautiful treatments for large-scale murals throughout the museum's permanent exhibition. Together with the designers, the Museum curators carefully selected historic photographs for large-scale print to be a part of the murals and to serve as both informative and inspirational pieces throughout the galleries.

The seven murals throughout the space tie history to homage. Local Projects are award-wining exhibition experience designers. Saint-Louis is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Harlem whose work is rooted in cultural storytelling and crafting works honoring the African diaspora. By elevating historical imagery through colorful displays, the collaborative murals enhance the museum's storytelling, feature intergenerational changemakers, and ground the viewer in powerful historical moments throughout the space.

Portrait of Eugene Kinckle Jones by Augusta Savage, 1934

Augusta Savage was a Black American sculptor whose studio and work inspired many in the Harlem Renaissance. Her 1934 bust of Eugene Kinckle Jones, honors the founder of the Boston National Urban League who served as the Executive Secretary of the League from 1918-1940, and is remnant of the close relationship between the National Urban League and the Harlem Renaissance.