In Pursuit of the Dream: Honoring the Dreams We Inherited and the Futures We Shape

Curator: Sadie Rose of Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Barton Art Galleries presents In Pursuit of the Dream: Honoring the Dreams We Inherited and the Futures We Shape, a photographic exhibition celebrating the aspirations, cultural traditions, and enduring legacies of Black communities across Eastern North Carolina and beyond. Through photography and installation-based works by regional visual storytellers, the exhibition explores what one generation leaves to the next. The featured artists illuminate inheritances of creativity, innovation, faith, leadership, joy, resilience, and community while considering how those legacies continue to shape identity, belonging, and visions of a better future. Bringing contemporary experiences into conversation with historical memory, In Pursuit of the Dream moves beyond narratives centered solely on struggle and survival. Instead, the exhibition honors the dreams carried forward through families and communities, the lives built from those dreams, and the new possibilities taking shape today. The exhibition is free and open to the public and will be on view in the Barton Art Galleries. Support for this project has been provided by the Andy Warhol Snapdragon Fund, which supports artists and artist-led projects throughout Central and Eastern North Carolina.