Peace In Every Step: Remembering Ashley Bryan
Ashley Bryan, award-winning artist, Little Cranberry Island resident, and pioneer of African, African American, and Black representation in children's literature, passed away over the weekend. He was a dear friend of the museum and leaves an indelible mark on Maine’s artistic legacy.
Countless artworks, photographs, items, and memorabilia decorated Bryan’s home in Maine.
Born in 1923, Ashley Bryan grew up in the Bronx during the Great Depression and began making books at the age of six. He never stopped. Trips to the public library—where he sought out folk tales, fairy tales, novels, biographies, and poetry—fueled his passion for storytelling from a young age. His parents, American immigrants from Antigua, supported and encouraged his creative endeavors; Bryan recalled an art desk they purchased for him and the rich variety of paper scraps that his father, a professional printer, brought home for him.
In 1940, Bryan was accepted into Cooper Union School of Art and Engineering, a significant accomplishment given the lack of opportunities for Black students at the time. World War II put his education on hold, however, when he was drafted into a segregated unit of the U.S. Army in 1943. Assigned to the 502nd Port Battalion, Bryan took part in the Normandy invasion, landing on Omaha Beach on June 9, 1944.
Bryan at Dartmouth College. Image courtesy the Ashley Bryan Center.
After the war, Bryan completed his education at Cooper Union. He later studied philosophy at Columbia University, and went to Germany on a Fulbright scholarship. He taught art in high schools and universities, including 14 years as professor of art at Dartmouth College. In the summer of 1946, while attending the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, he visited Acadia National Park and saw the Cranberry Isles; he soon moved there and called the island community home for more than 60 years.
Bryan’s beauty of spirit, depth of empathy, and belief in community cannot be overstated. As news spread of Bryan’s passing, the tributes and stories universally celebrated these qualities, how they resonated so deeply within him, and how they reverberated out into the lives and communities he touched.
Bryan with performers from the Theater Ensemble of Color, 2018.
In 2018 the PMA presented Painter and Poet: The Art of Ashley Bryan, which at the time was Bryan’s first major art museum exhibition in Maine. Over the run of the exhibition, Bryan shared his artistic vision and values through special programs, including an unforgettable performance of Beautiful Blackbird by the Theater Ensemble of Color for hundreds of schoolchildren in Maine, for free.
“To me, it’s community,” shared Bryan back then. “I think that’s the most important thing—that you feel that you have that outreach to others and that in some way, each one affects the lives of the others, and in very direct ways when needed.”
Thank you, Ashley Bryan, for affecting our lives through yours. It was very much needed, indeed.
More from Ashley Bryan at the PMA
