Edges of Ailey

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. 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.  

Performance tickets go on sale beginning in September. Tickets are limited and must be booked in advance. All performance ticket holders will receive access to the Edges of Ailey exhibition on the same day as their visit.  

Edges of Ailey is organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in collaboration with the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation. 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. 

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, 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, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional support is provided by A4 Arts Charitable Trust, the Adam D. Weinberg Artists First Fund, Candace and Rick Beinecke, Kevin Gan and Benjamin Blad, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Nancy Magoon, 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.