MOMA: Everybody Has Something to Say: Perspectives on the Children’s Art Carnival in Harlem

This conversation brings together artists and educators robin holder, Donna M. Jones, and Tschabalala Self for a discussion about the impact of the Children’s Art Carnival over five decades. The Harlem’s Children’s Art Carnival (1969-present) was an outgrowth of MoMA’s annual event-based art education series of the same name that was established by MoMA’s founding Education Director, Victor D’Amico, in 1942. In 1969, MoMA re-imagined the Carnival as a free outreach program in Harlem under the leadership of Betty Blayton-Taylor (1937-2016), an artist (known as Betty Blayton), educator, community activist, and co-founder of the Studio Museum in Harlem.  The discussion is moderated by exhibition curator Souleo and considers the Children’s Art Carnival’s origins, its central role in supporting the art of Black and diverse contemporary artists, and leadership in creating a dynamic teaching environment and pedagogical model for community-based arts education.

robin holder is an American visual artist and activist known for her mixed-media printmaking and paintings. Her work explores themes of racial and spiritual identity, social justice, and personal experience. She has completed several large scale site specific public art commissions, most notably 34 glass windows for the NYC subway.

She has been active in arts education for over 30 years and taught at the Carnival.

Donna M. Jones holds an Ed.D. from Harvard University, Graduate School of Education. At the Children’s Art Carnival, Dr. Jones worked closely with Betty Blayton, Executive Director and Founder, and Martha Norris, Education Director. She currently serves on the Carnival’s Board of Directors.

Tschabalala Self lives and works in the Hudson Valley, New York. Self is an artist who builds a singular style from the syncretic use of painting, printmaking and sculpture to explore ideas surrounding figuration. Recent solo exhibitions and performances include Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2025); Longlati Foundation, Shanghai (2025), and Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland (2024) among others. In her youth she attended Carnival classes.

Souleo is a curator, writer, impresario, consultant, and muse who documents and amplifies the stories of emerging and underrepresented artists and creative figures. Children’s Art Carnival in Harlem: The Making of Contemporary Artists is his most recent exhibition. Previous curatorial projects include Beau McCall: Buttons On! (2024-present), Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, and national tour; Dianne Smith: Two Turntables & a Microphone, (2023) at Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, and Showing Out: Fashion in Harlem, (2021), Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY amongst others.

This program is presented in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art and in conjunction with the Wallach Art Gallery exhibition Children’s Art Carnival in Harlem: The Making of Contemporary Artists, on view from June 26 through September 13, 2026.

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Children’s Art Carnival in Harlem: The Making of Contemporary Artists at Wallach Art GalleryFor the fourth iteration of its Uptown Triennial series, Wallach Art Gallery presents Children’s Art Carnival in Harlem: The Making of Contemporary Artists, an exhibition examining how a community art center emphasized creative freedom, experimentation, and communal bonds through the work of its affiliated artists. The curriculum would vary, morph, and evolve over the more-than-five-decades since its founding, grounded in the belief that working artists can be creative, art can build confidence and a strong sense of identity, and that community can bind people together through pedagogy and care. Often working between figuration and abstraction, the featured Carnival artists employ a wide spectrum of artistic practices such as painting, printmaking, and photography; legacy techniques such as quiltmaking and ceramics; as well as the incorporation of found objects, assemblage, and wearable art.

This exhibition is free and open to the public.
June 26 – September 13, 2026
Gallery Hours: Wed-Sun 12 PM to 6 PM

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