When it comes to understanding race, complexion is truly only skin deep. Rosa Leff, GEd’12, is an artist whose life experiences defy common assumptions.
“Judgments based on appearance often are completely wrong,” says Leff. “In my project, I represent the many roles I play—as a Black artist who has exhibited my work globally, as a Jewish woman with strong ties to my faith, and as an individual with ideas and opinions unrelated to either of those labels.”
Leff’s primary medium is papercutting, using skillful craftwork to create highly detailed scenes ranging from everyday life to self-portraits and abstract concepts. On July 1, Leff was named one of eight recipients of a 2020 Black Artists Support Grant from the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation.
Established in 2016 by Katherine Sachs, CW’69, PAR’95, and the late Keith L. Sachs, W’67, PAR’95, the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation provides grants and other forms of strategic support to students, artists, faculty, cultural centers, and other arts advocates at Penn. The program links arts education to the Penn Compact 2022 goal of advancing innovation across the University.
“We believe strongly that the arts are essential to the core mission of education. The very best students seek out a university with a vital arts program. At the same time, the arts are central to advancing key Penn values, such as diversity, innovation, and integrating knowledge.” Keith Sachs
The 2020 Black Artists Support Grants were awarded to projects led by or primarily serving Black artists and practitioners. For the first time, the Sachs Program extended the call for applications to alumni in recognition of the importance of representing a variety of perspectives.
A unique aspect of the Black Support Grant is that there are no criteria to address a particular subject. Grants were awarded on the strength of the artist’s own vision, culminating in a diverse set of works by or for Black artists.
“As a Black woman, an artist, and an alumna born in Philadelphia and remaining connected to the University, it was really important for me that we directly support Black artists and give them the freedom to make whatever they want,” says Tamara Suber, GFA’11, a member of the Sachs Program team who helped evaluate the grant proposals. “Keith and Kathy Sachs have been so wonderful and supporting of diversity, inclusion, and innovation. These grants help us extend their legacy at a critical time.”
Winning proposals explore a range of experiences, subjects, and social issues, including health care, encounters with the judicial system, and visions of the future centered on Black protagonists.
Leff’s project involves creating life-size, paper-cut self-portraits that “challenge the one-dimensional view folks often have of Blackness,” according to her artist’s statement. Even Leff’s medium of papercutting comes as a surprise to some. “This is a folk-art form where practitioners tend to skew older and White,” Leff says. “I want to ask why that is, and also bring my own unique perspective—including my faith and my upbringing in urban areas—to the craft.”
I want to inspire people to be open to the unexpected, both when viewing art and when considering fellow humans. In my project, I hope to show that not only can Black people be anything, but a single Black woman can be a dozen things at once.”Rosa Leff
In exhibiting her work around the world, Leff has seen the power of art to show that we are more connected than some might realize. “I’ve created scenes from neighborhoods in Baltimore and Philadelphia, where people from either city misidentify the image as their own hometown,” Leff says. “We can learn so much more about our world, and about ourselves, when we think beyond what’s familiar or expected.”
