Join us for the newest edition of Wallach Talks, where we present a range of creative voices in response to Wallach exhibitions. Today’s speakers will share reflections of their experiences past and present with the Children’s Art Carnival in Harlem.
A Harlem resident for more than fifty years, Michael A. Cummings is a leading figure in contemporary quiltmaking, known for his vivid fabric collage compositions that celebrate the African American experience through historical, cultural, philosophical and mythical realms. His work appears in major public and private collections, including the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Studio Museum in Harlem; International Quilt Museum, the Brooklyn Museum; Barack Obama Presidential Library; Museum of Art and Design, City College of New York, and MTA Subway Art. He is the recipient of the nation's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts, National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship.
Tomo Mori is a Harlem-based painter and fiber artist. Currently a resident artist at the Children’s Art Carnival, her work has been shown at The Golden Thread 2025, Scope Miami, FiveMyles, and the Newark Museum. In 2018 one of Mori’s public art commissions was permanently installed at the MTA Manhattanville Bus Depot on W 133rd Street.
Souleo is a curator, writer, impresario, consultant, and muse who documents and amplifies the stories of emerging and underrepresented artists and creative figures. Children’s Art Carnival in Harlem: The Making of Contemporary Artists is his most recent exhibition. Previous curatorial projects include Beau McCall: Buttons On! (2024-present), Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, and national tour; Dianne Smith: Two Turntables & a Microphone, (2023) at Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, and Showing Out: Fashion in Harlem, (2021), Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY amongst others. He is the co-curator with Barbara Paris Gifford of the upcoming exhibition Harlem by Hand at the Museum of Arts and Design, opening October 9, 2027.
Michael Unthank currently serves as co-chair of the Board of Directors for the Children’s Art Carnival. He has built a career in support of community based artistic expression and development. Through his work as an arts funding executive, as an organizational director, and as an independent consultant, he has provided leadership in the arts to spark special initiatives and partnerships for cultural development with public and private funders, artists and local and regional arts organizations.
