We are honored and thrilled by the generous donation by Ta-coumba T. Aiken of one of his beautiful paintings, valued at $7,000! A big supporter of the arts, Ta-coumba is inspired by the mission of DSSF!

Ta-coumba T. Aiken, a longtime fixture of the Twin Cities arts community, has gotten welcome national recognition with the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation's award to him of a 2022 Fine Arts fellowship.

As Minnpost noted at the time of the Guggenheim award:

The recognition comes after decades of Aiken's work as an activist, educator and artist, whose works pop with primary colors and lines that dance with the polyrhythmic dynamism of jazz and music of the African diaspora. You can almost hear his paintings and sculptural works.

You likely have run across Aiken's public art works, like the mural outside of Walker West Music Academy in St. Paul, an homage to the Rondo neighborhood, and or on the side of the Victoria Apartments building on Selby. His work has been acquired by the Walker Art Center (currently on view in the exhibition "Five Ways In"), he won a Guinness World Record for the largest Lite-Brite picture when he designed a mural made of 596,000 Lite-Brite pegs in 2013, and he was featured on the commemorative poster for the Minnesota State Fair in 2017. He's also had numerous grants and fellowships over the years, including from the Bush Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.

"I create my art to heal the hearts & souls of people and their communities by evoking a positive spirit."