Edges of Ailey
Through Feb 9
On view
Floor 5
Open: Sept 25, 2024–Feb 9, 2025
Edges of Ailey, opening at the Whitney Museum of American Art on September 25, is the first large-scale museum exhibition to celebrate the life, dances, influences, and enduring legacy of visionary artist and choreographer Alvin Ailey (b. 1931, Rogers, Texas; d. 1989, New York, New York). This dynamic showcase—described as an “extravaganza” by curator Adrienne Edwards—brings together visual art, live performance, music, a range of archival materials, and a multi-screen video installation drawn from recordings of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) repertory to explore the full range of Ailey’s personal and creative life.
Presented at the Museum in two parts, Edges of Ailey consists of an immersive exhibition in the Museum’s 18,000 square-foot fifth-floor galleries—featuring works by more than eighty artists and revelatory archival material—and an ambitious suite of performances in the Museum’s third-floor theater, including AILEY in residence for one week each month during the exhibition.
Sweeping holdings of rarely seen archives, including performance footage, recorded interviews, notebooks, letters, poems, short stories, choreographic notes, drawings, and performance programs and posters gathered from Ailey’s archives and others forge a vital throughline in the gallery. Selections from the Alvin Ailey Archival Papers—courtesy of the Allan Gray Family Foundation and held at the Black Archives of Mid America in Kansas City, Missouri—and the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation Archives Collection held at the Library of Congress are of singular importance, specially digitized and exhibited for this show’s occasion. A dynamic montage of Ailey’s life and dances will play on loop across an 18-channel video installation created by filmmakers Josh Begley and Kya Lou, with curator Adrienne Edwards.
Ailey’s presence, felt through the video surround and his encased personal effects, envelops a scenic installation of artworks by over eighty artists. These works are arranged by themes that shaped Ailey’s life and dances. Sections span an expanded Black southern imaginary that enfolds histories of the American South with those of the Caribbean, Brazil, and West Africa; the enduring practices of Black spirituality; the profound conditions and effects of Black migration; the resilience for and necessity of an intersectional Black liberation; the prominence of Black women in Ailey’s life; and the robust histories and experiments of Black music; along with the myriad representations of Blackness in dance and meditations on dance after Ailey.
Artists exhibited among Ailey include Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Faith Ringgold, Alma Thomas, Jacob Lawrence, Rashid Johnson, Kevin Beasley, Kara Walker, and many others. A recent acquisition of Eldren Bailey and new works by Karon Davis, Jennifer Packer, Mickalene Thomas, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye will be presented for the first time in honor of this landmark exhibition.
Edges of Ailey also offers a rare opportunity for visitors to watch intimate live performances by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in the Museum’s third-floor theater. As part of the exhibition's robust live performance program, AILEY is in residence at the Whitney for one week each month, for a total of five weeks and over ninety performances. This gives visitors the opportunity to experience the full scope of Ailey's world and legacy, including performances of classic and contemporary works by the two repertory companies—Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ailey II—as well as showcases by students from The Ailey School, workshops and education programs from Ailey Arts In Education, and classes from Ailey Extension. During the weeks AILEY is not in residence at the Museum, a series of dance commissions by leading choreographers and their collaborators, including Ronald K. Brown, Trajal Harrell, Bill T. Jones, Ralph Lemon, with interdisciplinary artist Kevin Beasley, Sarah Michelson, Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, Will Rawls, Matthew Rushing, Yusha-Marie Sorzano, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar will be showcased.
Program tickets are now on sale. Tickets are limited and must be booked in advance. Visitors with program tickets that include Museum admission are welcome to visit the exhibition on the same day within regular museum hours.
Visitors can also see Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater during the company's annual engagement at New York City Center from December 4 to January 5.
Edges of Ailey is organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in collaboration with the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation. Special acknowledgment to the Allan Gray Family Foundation and the Black Archives of Mid-America in Kansas City for access to archival materials. The exhibition is curated by Adrienne Edwards, Engell Speyer Family Senior Curator and Associate Director of Curatorial Programs, with Joshua Lubin-Levy, Curatorial Research Associate, and CJ Salapare, Curatorial Assistant, with thanks to Katie Fong, Curatorial Assistant, for research support.
Review accessibility information before visiting Edges of Ailey.
The lead sponsor for Edges of Ailey is the Jerome L. Greene Foundation.
This exhibition is also sponsored by
Leadership support is provided by the Ford Foundation.
Generous support is provided by Judy Hart Angelo and the Arnhold Family | Arnhold Foundation.
Major support is provided by the Barbara Haskell American Fellows Legacy Fund; the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; The KHR McNeely Family Fund | Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely; Anne-Cecilie Engell Speyer and Rob Speyer; the Whitney’s National Committee; and Clara Wu Tsai.
Significant support is provided by The Holly Peterson Foundation, The Keith Haring Foundation Exhibition Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Denise Littlefield Sobel.
Additional support is provided by A4 Arts Charitable Trust, the Adam D. Weinberg Artists First Fund, Candace and Rick Beinecke, Jeanne Donovan Fisher, Kevin Gan and Benjamin Blad, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Nancy Magoon, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn and Nicolas Rohatyn, and an anonymous donor.
Curatorial research and travel for this exhibition were funded by an endowment established by Rosina Lee Yue and Bert A. Lies, Jr., MD.
Support is also provided by the Marshall Weinberg Fund for Performance, endowed in honor of his parents Anna and Harold Weinberg who taught him the meaning of giving.
Generous support for the catalogue is provided by the Mellon Foundation.
FCB New York is the exclusive marketing agency sponsor. New York magazine is the exclusive media sponsor.
Performances
View allEdges of Ailey includes a suite of performances in the Museum’s third-floor theater. Alongside the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ailey II, the performance program will feature an array of artists inspired by and responding to the legacy of Alvin Ailey.
Performance tickets are now on sale. Tickets are limited and must be booked in advance. Performance ticket holders will receive same-day access to the Edges of Ailey exhibition during regular Museum hours. Visitors can also see Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater during the company's annual engagement at New York City Center from December 4 to January 5.
Events
View all-
Quiet Hours in Edges of Ailey
Repeats
Next: Wednesday, December 4, 2024
10:30–11:30 am -
Alvin Ailey and Me: A Letter Writing Project
Repeats
Next: Friday, December 6, 2024
5–10 pm -
Free Pop-Up Dance Classes With Ailey Extension
Repeats
Next: Friday, December 6, 2024
6 pm -
Weekend Member Mornings
Repeats
Next: Sunday, December 8, 2024
9:30–10:30 am
Essay
After Ailey: A Conversation
Exhibition curator Adrienne Edwards asks Alvin Ailey scholars, dancers, and admirers to share their first Ailey experiences.
Audio guides
Hear directly from artists and curators on selected works from the exhibition.
View guideIn the News
“I love the look of it, the sound of it, the ideas it floats.” —The New York Times
“One of the most ambitious shows the museum has ever presented…” —The New York Times
“Alvin Ailey has never left the hearts of dancers, and it is that legacy which guides Edges of Ailey.” —Vanity Fair
“As much as ‘Edges of Ailey’ is a celebration of the late, great choreographer, it is also an ode to the world of Black art and to Edwards’s dazzling curatorial vision.” —The Cut
“Edges of Ailey is not just an exhibition; it is a celebration of a living legacy.” —ESSENCE
“...affirms the artist’s place as one of the most culturally and historically significant artistic figures in the United States and the world.” —Forbes
“...it should not be missed” —The Wall Street Journal
“...an expansive new survey….” —Harper's Bazaar
“...not only an homage to Ailey, but a picture of his life and how dance fit into all the other creative pursuits he chased” —W Magazine
“...an essential injection of sheer joy and contemporary cultural history” —Forbes
“It was not at all what I expected, and I am so glad for that.” —Observer
“The first of its kind…” —HYPEBEAST
“... showcase Ailey’s ‘extraordinary curiosity’” —Dance Magazine
“...a masterfully curated celebration of one of America’s greatest artists” —New York Said
“Dancer Alvin Ailey Comes Into Full Focus in Stunning, Genre-Blurring Whitney Show” —Artnet News
“This must-see exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art pays excellent tribute to Ailey’s dances” —Ebony
“Ailey receives a show worthy of his greatness…” —The Guardian
"...a visual stream that flows through Ailey’s history and reflects his restlessness, his desire to stay in motion, to keep going beyond 'Revelations.'" —The New Yorker
“...stunning, groundbreaking, exhibition dedicated to the brilliant, mold-shattering choreographic genius Alvin Ailey…” —New York Amsterdam News
This exhibition contains flashing and strobing effects that should be avoided by people who have photosensitive epilepsy or who may be susceptible to seizures.