Artist in Residence: Cheryl Miller | If We Stand Tall 

July 21, 2023 - August 27, 2023

Beacon Gallery and its nonprofit, ShowUp, are delighted to announce that Cheryl Miller has been invited to be its Artist-In-Residence for the Summer 2023 (07/21/2023 - 08/27/2023), supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Its upcoming exhibition Cheryl Miller: If We Stand Tall, will feature the work of this longtime New York photographer who is now based in the Boston area. The public is invited to experience Miller's studio as created within Beacon Gallery from July 21st through August 24th and then enjoy the culminating exhibition of the residency, entitled If We Stand Tall from August 25th to the 27th. An opening reception shall be hosted on August 25th, from 6 to 8 pm. 

As a former City and Regional Planner, she focuses on the economic, social, and political development of communities, neighborhoods, and the people that make them thrive.  She does this by “capturing images of African Americans viewed through a kaleidoscope of everyday experiences:  the rites, rituals, social norms, mores of how people live, work, play, conduct business, raise children, build families and community, create art, educate, worship, entertain, invent…in spite of the history of hundreds of years of enslavement, Jim Crow and existing racist systems, that have not thwarted our efforts to flourish magnificently.”  She insists that “honoring and revering our ancestors” is the catalyst for this success.

During the residency, Miller will exhibit her photographs, immerse visitors in the discussion of audio-generated narratives written to accompany them, guide the installation of a community-based Ancestral Altar to include offerings from the surrounding community, immerse visitors in the discussion, and engage local artists in conversation about the importance of the art we create and the legacies we leave. Her studio practice will be open to the public in its incubation phase prior to the official exhibition.  August’s First Friday and Studio Sundays will open Miller’s residency to the public (August 4, 6, 13, and 20th), and the residency is also open by appointment. Please contact us to arrange a visit.  

Miller’s studio practice will be open to the public in its incubation phase prior to the official exhibition. Miller will exhibit images, audio and text-based narratives, and guide the installation of a community-based ancestral altar. Visitors will be invited to contribute flowers, cloth, pictures, bottles of oil or liquor, coconuts, photos, and unlit candles to the altar installation on days the gallery is open to the public. Ancestral altars have a deep history in the Yoruba tradition that has many tributaries: Palo Mayombe, Voodoo, Ifa, Santeria, and even unnamed and hidden practices adopted by African Americans who survived the Trans-Atlantic slave trade to reconnect to their ancestry. The community altar will be celebrated on August 27th as part of the If We Stand Tall exhibition. 

Following the dates of the residency, Cheryl Miller: If We Stand Tall (August 25 - 27, 2023) will officially open to the public. If We Stand Tall comes from the African Proverb: “If we stand tall it is because we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.” This proverb encapsulates Miller’s role as a story keeper and archivist for her family, community, and her brilliant portfolio of Black figurative film-based photography narrating decades of culture and cultural icons.

Beacon Gallery and Cheryl Miller invite the public to join them for an opening reception to celebrate the culmination of the residency and the opening of If We Stand Tall on August 25th from 6 to 8 pm. The opening is free and open to the public, guests are welcome to register on Eventbrite or simply stop by the opening. 

The exhibition (August 25th-27th) will offer standard gallery hours (12-6 Fri/12-5 Sat, 11-4 Sun), and an opening on Friday, August 25th (6-8 pm), which is free and open to the public.  

Photographers Roundtable

On Tuesday August 8th Cheryl Miller was joined by photographers Marilyn Nance and OJ Slaughter for a Photography Panel, moderated by Dr. Jovonna Jones of Boston College.

Perspectives & Visions: African Street Food with Black & White Photography

 Nigerian Restaurant Suya Joint, and photographer Cheryl Miller welcomed guests to the gallery for a memorable evening of intriguing dialogue and vegan African cuisine, through Open Kitchens Project. 

Current list of open days and events:

August 4 (5-8 pm) First Friday

August 6 (11-4 pm) Studio Sunday 

August 8 (6:30 pm, doors at 6) Photography Roundtable with Cheryl Miller, Marilyn Nance & OJ Slaughter @ Boston University, 808 Commonwealth Ave, Room 401-11

August 8 6:30-9:30 pm) African Street Food Dinner

August 13 (11-4 pm) Studio Sunday 

August 20 (11-4 pm) Studio Sunday 

August 25 (12-6) Gallery Hours

August 25  (6-8 pm) Opening - Cheryl Miller: If We Stand Tall

August 26 (12-6) Gallery Hours

August 27 (11-4 pm) Gallery Hours

For more information on the exhibition or events, email contact@beacongallery.com.

About Cheryl Miller

Cheryl Miller, was born and raised in South Jamaica, Queens. She attended New York City Public Schools and completed undergraduate work in Sociology/Psychology at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina. She completed graduate work in the School of Architecture, Department of City and Regional Planning at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. 

With over 40 years of experience documenting Black quotidian life through photography and making images since childhood, Miller is self-taught. Her intentional transition to photography didn’t begin until graduate school at Pratt, ignited by the use of her camera for a school project. Miller began teaching herself everything about photography. Because of her passion for advocacy planning in neighborhood revitalization, community and economic development, she continued to work in the field for nearly 20 years, a City Planner by day and navigating her photographic journey on nights and weekends. As a single mother of a teenaged son and homeowner, there was no option to go back to school for photography or to be a starving artist without a job.

In the mid-eighties she worked for New York City’s housing agency, The Department of Housing, Preservation and Development, where she served as Assistant to the Bureau Chief, and managed and administered Community Consultant Contracts, that provided a major source of funding for community based non-profits in housing development and neighborhood revitalization. 

In the late eighties through the mid-nineties, she went on to become Executive Director of two community development organizations, Jamaica Apartment Improvement Program in South Jamaica, Queens and Bushwick Improvement Coordinating Action Committee in Bushwick, Brooklyn. She was charged with creating these pilot programs focused on mitigating multifamily housing vacancies, drug infestation, and the physical, economic and social development of homeless housing for families, respectively. Miller was immersed in organizing, and activism in both communities. Being in community informed and heightened her perspective, enabling her to better capture the human experience visually. 

After making the hard decision to walk away from City Planning to pursue photography full time, Miller literally walked into a small photography studio on Jamaica Avenue in Queens and asked for a job. She got one…stuffing envelopes with negatives and a promise from the owner that he didn’t have time to teach her anything. Luckily, there was an assistant in the studio darkroom, where all of what she learned would change her life forever: black and white film development, photographic printing and how to run a darkroom for a photography studio. Miller also honed her skills by working as an photography/darkroom assistant for two other photographers.

Working primarily with natural light on film, she strives to capture/create the visual simplicity of her subjects by emphasizing the contrast between highlights and shadows. She studies the human condition from a visual perspective and has developed a powerful eye for images that display the true kaleidoscope of experiences in African American culture. Miller was first asked to exhibit her work in 1988. Since then her work 

She has been exhibited widely in galleries, museums and various art institutions.

In 1998, Miller made her curatorial debut at the Rush Fine Arts Gallery in New York, NY. The exhibition was entitled Gyration, a photographic tribute to dance by Sistagraphy, an organization of women photographers from around the country.

Her images have been published in  ReFraming: Reflections in Black, Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photographers, FREEDOM: A Photographic History of the African American Struggle, Reflections In Black- A History of Black Photographers 1840-Present, A History of New York In Images – CITYSCAPES, Black: A Celebration of A Culture, Long Shot, and Black New York Photographers of the 20th Century. Miller’s work has been the subject of several newspaper and magazine articles and reviews. Her images can also be found in the permanent collections of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Brooklyn Museum and Museum of the City of New York.   

In 1999, she was an Adjunct Lecturer at The Tisch Department of Photography and Imaging at New York University in New York, an Adjunct Lecturer at The City University of New York (York College) and taught photography and art in New York City’s public school system.

Currently, Miller is working on a book project, If We Stand Tall…Recollections of Spirits Past, a study of a community, all communities, specifically her community- Jamaica, New York. A deeply moving and important memoir that captures the very essence of life, in a celebration of our ancestors, community and our connection to all others. 

She has been awarded the 2023 Scholarship to attend the La Luz Workshop, Publish Your Photography Book. Miller is also currently Beacon Gallery’s (Boston) 2023 Artist In Residence.