Cinque Gallery records

Donated in 2013 by Ruth M. Jett, former executive director of Cinque Gallery

The Cinque Gallery was founded in 1969 by artists Romare Bearden (1911–1988), Ernest Crichlow (1914–2005), and Norman Lewis (1909–1979) to exhibit the work of both new and established African–American artists, and to provide community educational programs. The gallery was named after Joseph Cinqué, the leader of the Amistad slaveship mutiny of the 1830s. For more than three decades, Cinque sponsored more than 300 exhibitions in a number of New York City venues, as well as regional travelling exhibitions before closing in 2004.