First she moved back to northern Florida to Jacksonville. Stymied there, Augusta Savage moved to New York City. Her move paralleled that of many other Harlem Renaissance figures, who migrated to the northern American city in search of greater opportunities for financial and personal growth. In 1921, Augusta enrolled in a free art program at Cooper Union in New York City. The course helped her acquire formal training for her future career, and Savage washed laundry to earn a living. In spite of her tremendous efforts, Savage met with serious obstacles because of her race, poverty, and correspondingly low social status. She applied and was accepted to a summer art program in France. The French government turned her away "because of her color," ("Augusta Fells Savage"). Savage used the incident to draw attention to the issue of racism. She therefore contributed to the growing awareness of the systematic oppression of people of color.

Although Augusta Savage did not get to study in France, her efforts earned the attention of Herman Atkins MacNeil. MacNeil became one of her mentors and helped Savage hone her style. She began depicting "black physiognomy" in works such as "The Harp," and "Gamin." Like other Harlem Renaissance artists, Savage drew on her personal experiences growing up in the south and her ethnic and cultural heritage. Harlem Renaissance depictions of African-Americans were revolutionary because of their realism, and also because African-American artists had for the first time been able to control their own imagery. "Gamin" is a bust of Savage's nephew and the sculpture won her the...

The Fellowship finally earned Augusta Savage the opportunity to study in Paris for a year. Her talent depicting African-Americans in sculptural busts also earned her a slew of professional contracts to create busts of prominent figures including W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Frederick Douglass, and James Weldon Johnson ("Augusta Fells Savage").
Her success allowed Augusta Savage to become a leader in the Harlem community. She opened the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts and taught other budding young artists. Appointed director of the Harlem Community Arts Center, Savage also became increasingly politically active. She rallied for greater inclusion of African-American talent in Works Progress Administration (WPA) art funds and their programs. Savage used her influence to create the Harlem Artists Guild. Upon her death in 1962, Augusta Savage was recognized as one of the leading contributors to the Harlem Renaissance and for African-American art.

Works Cited

"Augusta Savage." Retrieved Mar 26, 2009 from http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu/1998/art/pages/savage.htm

"Augusta Savage." Retrieved Mar 26, 2009 from http://blackhistorypages.net/pages/asavage.php

Excerpt from Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 12, Augusta C. Savage, P. 186-190. Published by Gale Research in 1996. Retrieved Mar 26, 2009 from http://www.hometoharlem.com/HARLEM/hthcult.nsf/notables/ddb85e346432e08f8525674a0049966a

PBS: African-American World. "Augusta Savage." Retrieved Mar 26, 2009 from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/arts/savage.html