An exhibition exploring the excitement and power of combining separate elements to make something new, beautiful, and lasting. Drawn from the Betsy Beinecke Shirley Collection of American Children’s Literature, the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Literature, and the Yale Collection of American Literature, “+” considers exemplary works and the archival stories of their making to reveal the creative—and potentially destructive—tensions that are inevitable parts of artistic collaboration. Including plays, children’s books, novels, performance artworks, films, photographs, and more, the works on view demonstrate that collaboration itself is an art form. Writers and artists featured include Russell and Lillian Hoban, Richard Wright and Orson Welles, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Bert Williams and George Walker, C. D. Wright and Deborah Luster, and many more.
The exhibit will start Friday, January 19, 2018 and run through Sunday, April 15, 2018.