JAMES WASHINGTON JR: MANY HATS, ONE SPIRIT

Now on view at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Many Hats, One Spirit is a retrospective exhibition that highlights the life and work of Dr. James W. Washington, Jr. (1908 – 2000). Washington Jr. spent the first thirty years of his life living in Jim Crow Mississippi, where he entertained the other neighborhood children with his lively chalk drawings and worked as a cobbler and steamboat deckhand. In 1944, he moved with his bride to Bremerton to work at the naval yard. It was here in the Pacific Northwest that he honed his painting skills, studying under Mark Tobey and exhibiting his works in small galleries until 1948, when his work was accepted into Seattle Art Museum's Northwest Annual Exhibition.

James Washington Jr., Carving Dr. Martin Luther King, Courtesy of Dr. James W. Washington, Jr. & Mrs. Janie Rogella Washington Foundation.

The exhibit title references “many hats,” paying homage to this multifaceted man who was a visual artist, poet, gardener, community builder, civil rights activist, and spiritual person. Included are stone carvings for which he is best known, plus drawings, paintings, prints, and collage work loaned from numerous public and private collections. 

Also on view are poetry, ephemera from his life, and items from the Civil Rights Era from Washington’s personal collection. At the top of the museum’s grand staircase are re-creations of his home and studio, to provide context for his life and the art of stone carving.

BIMA reflects Washington’s “living legacy” by including the work of more than twenty-five former Artists-in-Residence from the Dr. James and Janie Washington Cultural Center in Seattle. These artists pursued diverse media, including stone carving, painting, printmaking, mixed media work, poetry, and writing, in Washington’s former studio, home, and garden for selected periods of time. Some artworks were generated during these residencies, and others reflect more current endeavors.

James Washington Jr.: Many Hats, One Spirit

Bainbridge Island Museum of Art

July 4, 2025, to September 17, 2025

Learn more and plan your visit here.

James W. Washington, Jr., Democracy Challenged, 1949, oil on unfinished masonite, newspaper collage, 18 x 48”. All images courtesy of Dr. James W. Wasington, Jr. and Mrs. Janie Rogella Washington Foundation. Photo: Korum Bischoff.