Barbara Ward Armstrong with her sculpture
"Let My People Go," 1989
"I'm committed to my art because of what was given to me by my mother and the generation before me. All those great aunts and great-grandmothers. I do it because I have to. Because so much was given to me. And I know my work moves and changes people, especially children."
Barbara Ward Armstrong interacting with a
visitor to her artist-in-residence exhibit at the Boston Museum
of Fine Arts, May 2002
"Soft sculpture is a relatively new direction in contemporary art. Over the last two decades, it has been an arena in which black women sculptors have dominated. ... Using her awareness of contemporary sociopolitical as well as cultural issues, Barbara Ward has not only freed her inner creativity from conventional art or aesthetically safe pursuits, she has also contributed hugely toward expanding the boundaries of what art is in the late twentieth century." - Edmund Barry Gaither, Director of the National Center for Afro-American Artists; From Callaloo, Vol. 12 No. 4
