- Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (1877-1968) ushered in the Harlem Renaissance with her sculptures focusing on African American themes, such as A Silent Protest Against Mob Violence and Ethiopia Awakening. Born in Philadelphia, she attended the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, and at the turn of the century studied in Paris with such artists as Raphael Collins and Auguste Rodin. Fuller’s reputation as a sculptor, however, represents just half of her life’s work; during the early 1920s, she also began to concentrate her talents in the area of theater design. Fuller designed lighting, costumes, scenery, masks, and make-up for church pageants and theater companies such as the Framingham Civic League, a white semi-professional group she worked with for nearly thirty years, and The Allied Arts, a Boston African American group under the direction of Maud Cuney-Hare. Meta Warrick Fuller is remembered as one of the earliest African American stage designers who contributed to all areas of theater design.
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