Wallach Art Gallery|Uptown Triennial 2026|Children's Art Carnival in Harlem

The first major exhibition on the legacy of a seminal community art program founded and run by artist and activist Betty Blayton (1927–2016)
About this Event

For the 2026 edition of its Uptown Triennial series, Wallach Art Gallery celebrates how art education has brought a Harlem community together through pedagogy and care.
The first major exhibition to reveal the impact of the Children's Art Carnival on the work of contemporary artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Janet Olivia Henry, Dindga McCannon, Tschabalala Self, and Beverly Semmes, the exhibition is curated by Souleo/

features artworks by 30 former and current students, instructors, and interns at this seminal community art center, where creative freedom, experimentation, and communal bonds have flourished for over half a century.

Artists in the exhibition: Armando Alleyne, Tomie Arai, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Milagros Batista, Betty Blayton, Brad Brewer, Lenore Browne, Élan Cadiz, Rocco Candela-Michelus, Carlos Corona, Michael A. Cummings, Carmen L. de Jesús, Jonathan Finlayson, Janet Olivia Henry, robin holder, Elisabeth Kley, Michael Macioce, Steve Mayo, Dindga McCannon, Tomo Mori, Sana Musasama, Senga Nengudi, Ademola Olugebefola, Dionis Ortiz, José Ortiz, Tschabalala Self, Beverly Semmes, Tamara Wasserman, Emmett Wigglesworth, Michael Kelly Williams
A 1969 expansion of a Museum of Modern Art free outreach program, the Children's Art Carnival in Harlem was led from the start by the visionary artist Betty Blayton-Taylor (1937–2016), who, in 1974, transformed it into an independent nonprofit organization based in a brownstone on Hamilton Terrace.
Blayton-Taylor believed that individual expression, cultural awareness, and community were the basis of self-discovery, and this continues to guide the Carnival today.