Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art

Finding voices of the African Diaspora that might otherwise be forgotten is at the heart of the Davis Collection.

The Taubman Museum of Art is pleased to announce Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art, celebrating the passion of an ordinary couple who spent more than 35 years as devoted connoisseurs, building a collection of vivid artworks that are both resonant and remarkably personal. Memories & Inspiration is on view at the Taubman May 26-August 16, 2025.

Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art presents 67 selected works from a body of art amassed over 35 years. Kerry, a retired mailman, and Betty, a former television news producer, gladly gave up many ordinary comforts in order to live with extraordinary paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures as their principal luxuries.

Their collection includes works by Romare Bearden, Beverly Buchanan, Elizabeth Catlett, Ernest T. Crichlow, Sam Gilliam, Loïs Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Gordon Parks, Alma Thomas, and Charles White, but Kerry and Betty do not search exclusively for well-known and/or documented artists. Rather, they focus on the more meaningful task of gathering and preserving a range of artistic approaches to the black image, in order to console the psyche and contribute to a more authentic articulation of the self.

The result is an eclectic gathering of pieces crossing different mediums, subjects, and styles by a group of artists of the African Diaspora who—in terms of training, experience, and expression—are strikingly diverse but unified in their use of cultural and historical narratives.

As their collection has grown, so has the Davis’s storehouse of memories of discovering new works of art, building friendships with artists, and conversing with museum professionals and other collectors in their home.

Memories & Inspiration brings together an awe-inspiring selection of works, but it is their personal resonance—their connection to the Davis’s hopes, passions, and everyday lives—that gives the collection its unique power.

Memories & Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art was organized and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.