This year, Historic Strawberry Mansion is celebrating the 100th anniversary of “The Committee of 1926,” the stewardship group that helps preserve the Fairmount Park property.

In 1926, a group of women banded together to put on an exhibit for the sesquicentennial and took on the challenge of restoring Historic Strawberry Mansion. However, this exhibit excluded people of color and other minorities in the city.

To honor this anniversary, and highlight the diversity of Philadelphia, the mansion is hosting an art exhibition entitled “From Invisible to Invincible: Honoring the Art of Color.” This exhibit, which will run from Sept. 19 to Nov. 8, includes several notable artists from the Northwest section of the city.

A year ago, Maryl Hitchings, a board member for Historic Strawberry Mansion, came up with the idea for the exhibit. She invited 12 artists from around the city to participate: Henry Bermudez, Barbara Bullock, Syd Carpenter, Martina Johnson-Allen, Tim McFarlane, Tom McKinney, Pedro Ospina, Ron Rumford, Sherry Shine, Steven CW Taylor, Yolanda Ward, and Richard Watson. Nancy Evans, a Chestnut Hill resident and photographer who took pictures of these artists in their studios, has been helping Hitchings with the planning.

The artists “are all extremely well regarded,” Evans said. “They’ve shown at a lot of major museums here in Philadelphia and around the country.”

The exhibition includes all sorts of artwork, including paintings, pottery, quilts, and photography. The Local spoke to several of the artists involved in the exhibit.

Martina Johnson-Allen, who lives in Laverock, describes herself as a mixed-media artist who does “a lot of experimenting.” Some of her work chosen for the show includes lithographs and a colorful collage entitled “Celestial Luminosity.”

Johnson-Allen is hopeful that people visiting the exhibition will take away some personal meaning from the artwork.

“Oftentimes, when I do pieces, someone will bring about a personal experience that they’ve had that the piece reminds them of,” Johnson-Allen said. “It’s amazing how people interpret what they see. They often use it to interpret personal experiences that I hadn’t even considered. So, when I show my work, I hope it evokes within individuals some kind of positive experience or connection made with the universe.”

Johnson-Allen also acknowledged the significance of having the event in Historic Strawberry Mansion, a building with a lot of history.

“The exhibit is not going to just be on bare walls like a museum or gallery,” Johnson-Allen said. “It’s going to be in an environment which I think is interesting — like a receiving room environment. So you’ll have the past and present on view all at once.”

Ron Rumford, who lives and works in Germantown, makes works on paper, working with relief and intaglio techniques to employ pattern and line. For this exhibit, he will be displaying several brand new pieces.

For Rumford, the opportunity to be a part of the exhibit “fell on top of” him.

“Maryl and the group organizing the event were visiting my neighbor Barbara Bullock, who lives just across the hall, and some of my things were hanging outside in the hall,” Rumford said. “And I think Meryl said, ‘I like this stuff. Who is it?’ Barbara Bullock kindly shared my name and called me up, and so that’s why I’m there. It’s kind of happenstance, but sometimes that’s the best way.”

Rumford is also excited by the dichotomy of having modern art displayed in such an historic mansion.

“I like this idea of pairing a contemporary event with an historic event,” Rumford said. “I think, especially in Philadelphia, this is meaningful because we have so much [history], which is part of why I love living in Philadelphia. …The idea of bringing those spaces alive to new audiences by bringing in contemporary art and our followers — that’s a happy marriage of missions that wouldn’t obviously overlap, but I think can feed off each other.”

Yolanda Ward, who grew up in West Oak Lane and now lives in the Willow Grove area, creates her art exclusively out of paper. Although her pieces look like paintings from a distance, close up you can see the layers, patterns, and textures in each creation.

For this exhibit, Ward is showing a series titled “Beneath It All… It’s Where We Were,” which features images of sharecropper cabins. Ward hopes that visitors will “leave with a feeling they didn’t arrive with.”

“I hope the work speaks to them, perhaps bringing up a memory, a question, or an emotion they weren’t expecting,” Ward said. “I hope the experience stays with them long after the show ends.”

“From Invisible to Invincible: Honoring the Art of Color.” will run from Sept. 19 to Nov. 8 at Historic Strawberry Mansion (2450 Strawberry Mansion Dr.).

Maggie Dougherty can be reached at Margaret@chestnuthilllocal.com.