“Telling the Truth about a Certain History”

Creating images has always come easily to Danny Broadway. As a child, he wanted to do little more than draw, and as he grew up, he refined his art and his approach to visual storytelling. And it continues as an ongoing embrace of a journey that is as intellectual as it is artistic.

Broadway has been in Memphis most of his professional career, including 16 years teaching at St. George’s Independent School. He works from his home and studio on Jackson Avenue, frequently on commissioned pieces, and has produced work for PBS, FedEx, Regional One, the Memphis Grizzlies, Major League Baseball, the National Civil Rights Museum, and a host of other clients.

This month he will present an exhibition of work developed during his pursuit of a master of fine arts degree at Belmont University in Nashville. Earning an MFA has been a key ambition of the soft-spoken artist who is devoted to concepts as well as technique. As he puts it, “Mainly it’s a graduation for me from a long history of already making things and wanting to take a new mindset behind my practice.”

Memphis magazine interviewed him to find out more about how his art has evolved.

MM: You are, by any measure, an established and successful artist. What are you hoping to do in your pursuit of the MFA?

Broadway: Most of the success that I’ve found has been Southern, generated from this area. But the world of art is much bigger than local Delta flavor. I really wanted to get some knowledge about what else was out there. I want to elaborate on what I’m doing and create more of a dialogue around my work as far as what I’m trying to say and what it means. It always was hard for me to be a black artist in an area where most of the people who are buying art, aren’t really buying art to be buying black art. They’re buying art because they have resources, and then they’re buying things that they like that they want — and that’s not the broader language around Memphis.

“I’m not trying to change history; I’m just trying to tell the truth about a certain history. I’m going into things that have inspired other African-American artists who have been challenged to break into these different molds of contemporary art, where you’re showing your work in galleries or museums.” — Danny Broadway

How do you paint something that is still connected to yourself? You’re true to yourself, but you’re able to allow other people to read into it and then be able to connect. What I’ve been struggling with my whole career is trying to balance that and not totally give up on my culture, because that would be an easy thing to do. It’s easier to make a living off of your art when you’re painting things that everybody can feel comfortable putting on their wall.

So what’s driving you is not always something that makes people comfortable.

Not all the time. A lot of times I’m afraid to even go in those directions. Black people in America are in a certain status. In 2022, it’s a lot different than it was in 1965. There are a lot of advances in the world of art. If you go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art today, most of the work that you’ll see is African American art because that’s what’s really popular right now in the world of art. But being in Memphis, and not having any connections to anyone in those circles who makes the decisions as to what’s going to be shown in these major museums, you don’t really have the same conversation because you’re not there. So I’m just trying to navigate where I am and not be stuck here.

Tell us how the theme of heritage evolved in your graduate exhibition.

It’s always been something that’s motivated me. Now that I’ve gotten some language and some history to go behind it, I’m more comfortable talking about it. And I don’t feel like I’m just talking about the African-American experience. I’m talking about an American experience. You’re American, I’m American. There are stories that we all know about. And then there are stories that we don’t know about and that’s because nobody taught us those stories. I’m not trying to change history; I’m just trying to tell the truth about a certain history. I’m going into things that have inspired other African-American artists who have been challenged to break into these different molds of contemporary art, where you’re showing your work in galleries or museums.

A lot of times the history has been that if you don’t paint something like this, then it doesn’t fit into this European ideal of what art is. But after a while, if you’re denied entry so long, then eventually you decide, well, I’m not going to go that way at all. I’m going to talk about what I’m going to talk about, and I’m going to find ways to try to get my work seen other ways. So I started researching artists that were creating the footwork for other Black artists to be able to find places, to show work and find ways to engage people who were not exposed to what they were doing. That’s what inspired me to learn about quilt-making because that was an art form that was used as a functional thing.

Slaves were making quilts in Africa and when they came over here, the quilt-making traditions stayed and were passed down and they used those quilts almost as a language. During the times of the Underground Railroad, they would put signs and signals in quilts and hang them up and show people how to navigate to freedom from slavery.

I started studying some of those design patterns and that’s what I decided to do. It’s not deep down in my heart what I want to do with my work, but it’s an opportunity for me to learn about a history that I didn’t know anything about. And it was also a way for me to connect my love for making things to something that was more than just the fun of making something, and giving it a deeper meaning.

Who are your influences?

Romare Bearden wasn’t a quilt maker, but he did a lot of fragmentation and took a lot of things and put them together in a collage format. And I feel like quilting is a lot like collaging because you’re taking pieces of fabric and you’re putting them together in a different format. I studied Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringgold, and the ladies of Gee’s Bend.

I’ve been researching all of that stuff and trying to piece it all together so that it comes together in this format that makes sense with where the writing goes along with what I’m making. And then I’ll use that format in whatever my next body of work is — create dialogue around it and then have people study it in a deeper way.

Instead of painting ten beautiful paintings that I know people like and buy all the time, it gives it more of a meaning, a backdrop. That’s what I’m trying to learn, because that’s not something you get taught in undergrad or even as a freelance artist. That’s how to incorporate research into your work and how to make it where people want to talk about it and give them a reason to talk about it.

How’d you get into art?

I was very quiet when I was a kid. I would find ways to go sit by myself somewhere and draw stuff. I would draw on the furniture, the wall, my clothes, and I would get in a little trouble. They would ask me why I did it and I didn’t really know why.

I went to art camps and I remember being really invested in what the teachers were talking about. When I would do my projects, I would get all of this positive feedback and people would make me feel good about what I was doing. So that stuck with me. I always liked my art teachers and always did well. They would put my work in competitions and I would get little rewards and stuff.

After high school, my Mom drove me to the University of Memphis and walked me into the admissions office and signed me up for school. I started taking some graphic design courses because I didn’t really know much about art — I knew how to draw but had never been taught painting or anything like that.

You studied art education and graduated with a painting degree. What came next?

Once I graduated, I decided I was going to be a full-time artist. I started showing my work around Memphis, in Arts in the Park, and networked. I taught continuing education at the Memphis College of Art. I was encouraged to show my work at the art show at St. George’s Independent School and the art teacher there had me come in to talk to her classes. I went in with my palette, knife, and canvas, and I made some paintings and walked them through the steps. By the end of the day, she asked me if I’d ever considered teaching art.

And now, 16 years later, you’re still instructing budding artists at St. George’s. But you’re also freelancing?

I do a lot of commission work. I have a couple of galleries that I work with in Nashville, Little Rock, and San Francisco. I do a lot of work with FedEx. I work with T Clifton Art Gallery, David Lusk Gallery, Jay Etkin, and others. It connects over time: I’ve been in business now for over 27 years and some of what I’m doing now is a result of stuff that I was doing 20 years ago.

Danny Broadway’s exhibition of his graduate studies work will be on display at Belmont University’s Leu Art Gallery starting on July 2nd. He graduates on July 3rd.