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The national traveling exhibition “Tuskeegee Airmen: America’s Freedom Flyers,” is on display at the Kokomo Art Association’s Artworks Gallery for a special Black History Month presentation.
The exhibition, which debuted Memorial Day 2024 at the Grissom Air Museum, will be open for free exhibition tours to community groups, churches, and schools, starting January 19 in commemoration of MLK Day, and continuing through February 22.
Visitors to Artworks Gallery, 210 N. Main St., in Kokomo, will have the opportunity to learn about Kokomo’s local “Hometown Heroes” and view panels and artifacts dedicated to the 84-year legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen worldwide. A 2006 Congressional Medal awarded to Kokomo native LTC Bennett Hardy, the William Childs Collection, a model plane by Bill Hence, and photographs by John Slemp will be highlighted.
Educational curriculum and activity packets will be available to each classroom teacher, community, or church group that schedules a tour during January-February at Artworks Gallery. NOLAWORLD Curator Robin Williams serves as curator and designer for the exhibition, created in partnership with national historians Zellie Orr and Craig Huntly.
“We are very excited to be able to offer this exhibition to our local schools and community groups prior to its launch as a national touring exhibition,” emphasized Williams. “Young people will be inspired by the brave men and women who served their country against all odds. This is the perfect time to tell their story.”
This special community exhibition has been made possible by generous support from the Kokomo Art Association, the Community Foundation of Howard County, the Severns Family Fund, the Partners in Education Advised Fund, the Northview Christian Church Fund, Advanced Medical Imaging, Community First Bank of Indiana, Dignity Memorial, and several private donors.
After the special community presentation, the exhibition will travel to other locations around the country. Its next destination will be the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum in downtown St. Louis. Opening on Juneteenth 2025, the exhibition will be fortified with a “Hometown Heroes” section created in partnership with the Hugh J. White Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen Inc., celebrating more than 50 Tuskegee Airmen from St. Louis.
For the last 35 years NOLAWORLD has been dedicated to illuminating the often overlooked and unheard stories of cultural treasures through world-class public art, monuments, and exhibitions. During “Military Appreciation Month” last May, Williams worked with The Arts Federation and Howard County Memorial Corporation to bring nationally lauded muralist Malcom Byers to execute a large-scale mural dedicated to Kokomo’s “Hometown Heroes.”
Portraits of five Tuskegee Airmen originating from Howard County were unveiled on May 14, 2024, in downtown Kokomo at 217 N. Main St. Families of the Airmen were honored with a proclamation from the State of Indiana by District 30 State Representative Mike Karickhoff.
Artworks Gallery, located at 210 N. Main Street in Kokomo is open six days a week, Monday through Saturday from noon until 4 p.m. Additional tour times may be possible by special arrangement.
To schedule a tour, contact Curator/Coordinator Robin Williams at 317-213-5278 or email curator@nolaworld.org.