The MCA’s Emerge group consists of donors who support the museum’s acquisition and education programs. Every year, this group selects and collectively funds the purchase of one major work by an artist not currently represented in the MCA Collection. This year, in collaboration with the MCA curatorial team, Emerge members proposed works by Andrea Carlson (Grand Portage Ojibwe, b. 1979), Caroline Kent (American, b. 1975), and Ebony G. Patterson (Jamaican, b. 1981) for consideration.

Andrea Carlson highlights Native American histories and considers the legacy of the erasure of Indigenous cultures. Ebony G. Patterson uses gardens as a metaphor for death and rebirth, alongside figures inspired by crime scene photos she sourced online. Caroline Kent composes her paintings using a visual vocabulary of abstract shapes and forms she’s developed over years of practice.

Emerge members cast their final votes in May 2021 to determine which of these artworks is added to the MCA Collection.