New Orleans artist Keith Duncan’s “Battle of the Bands” opened Aug. 29 at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame, timed to Atlanta’s MEAC/SWAC Challenge Kickoff and the start of HBCU football season.
The exhibit, formally called the “Southern Company Keith Duncan: Battle of the Bands Exhibit, Presented by Mabra Law,” features 44 large-scale fabric paintings honoring 15 historically Black college and university (HBCU) marching bands, from Florida A&M’s Marching 100 to Morehouse College’s House of Funk. The show on view through May 2027.
Duncan, who studied at LSU and later earned his MFA at Hunter College, traces the project back to homecoming weekends at Southern University in Baton Rouge, where he watched the battle of the bands unfold between football games. He began painting the series in 2022 by researching top-ranked HBCU marching bands.
We talked with Duncan about the drum major as a folk hero, the traditions behind his signature quilted fabric backdrops, and what it means to showcase this work at a national museum in Atlanta.
Q: What drew you to make an entire body of work around the battle of the bands?
A: I attended LSU in Baton Rouge, and we would go over to Southern University’s campus, especially for their homecoming weekend. You have the step show, you have all the festivities going on, and of course the battle of the bands would happen. Something about it made me want to do a whole series on it. It took me until 2022 to actually start working on this body of work. I went online and typed in, “What were the top 10 HBCU marching bands in the country?” Bethune-Cookman came up number one, then FAMU, Grambling State, and so on — these institutions, one after another.
“The drum major’s narrative and symbolism were another major part of it. To me, the drum major is like the quarterback of a football team. They’re the leader, a real focal point. “
Painter Keith Duncan
Q: How did Morehouse’s House of Funk make the list?
A: I’m not sure they were in the original top 10, but I added five more schools to the list. I knew Morehouse has a large, famous alumni base, so that felt like a good reason to add them … same with Howard University.
Q: What was it about the bands specifically that captured your curiosity?
A: The Black tradition and excellence, the history behind it, is amazing to me. I wanted to capture it on canvas. The drum major’s narrative and symbolism were another major part of it. To me, the drum major is like the quarterback of a football team. They’re the leader, a real focal point. There’s a documentary by Brandy Mitchell called “Point and Drive,” about the history of marching bands, and it talks about how the drum major role brings positivity and leadership to the community they’re part of. So I saw the drum major not just as a leader but as a heroic figure. Early in my career, my brother and I were always into comic books — Batman, Superman — and that was one of my first interests in drawing and painting. To me, the drum major is a representation of those superhero figures.
Q: The paintings pair that HBCU tradition with African textile patterns and quilting references. Where did that come from?
A: In 2010, I started introducing pattern and fabric into my artwork. I have a mentor, Willie Birch, an artist from New Orleans, and he curated a show for me at the CUE Art Foundation in New York. For that show, I wanted to incorporate something that dealt with my Southern heritage and upbringing, something that dealt with my roots. So I thought about the Gee’s Bend quilters, and other aspects of African quilts and patterns and fabric. That’s why these patterns and fabric became part of the backdrop to these football paintings.
Q: How did the series end up at the College Football Hall of Fame?
A: It started in New Orleans at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. From there, it went to the Biggs Museum in Dover, Delaware, through the Art Bridges Foundation, which takes shows and has them travel around the country free of charge and handles the shipping. It came down from Dover in late January of this year, and now it’s here at the College Football Hall of Fame. It made sense — it’s wonderful.
Q: Is there a piece in the show you’re especially proud of?
A: The Tuskegee painting. When I put the show together, I had to figure out where to place each school’s logo on the canvas, because that logo is a history lesson. When young kids come see the show, they get to learn that a lot of these institutions came about during and after the Civil War. It’s good for students and young kids to know the tradition and history these institutions represent.
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Q: You’re also an educator. How has this project changed how you teach?
A: I want to investigate more now, get more strategic about a subject instead of just knocking out paintings … do more research and figure out what I want to get across to the viewer. That’s part of why this show being here matters, too. Most of what’s in the College Football Hall of Fame is interactive; people are touching things, the way they do at the WWII Museum in New Orleans. My paintings are on the wall; you can’t touch them. But there’s something in the movement of the figures, the vibrant colors, the pattern in the background. All of it happening on a flat, two-dimensional surface. That’s not always easy to pull off.
Q: What’s next for the series?
A: I’m adding more schools, 75 paintings total. I’m mainly staying focused on the bands. But there’s also the pleasure and social clubs in New Orleans — Zulu is the biggest one — and their history interests me. Back in the day, when someone passed away or got sick or had a medical bill, the community would come together to help. Every spring, there’s an event called Super Sunday, when the pleasure clubs take to the street in their tuxedos and march through the neighborhoods. It’s very family-oriented. I want to do a body of work on that.
“Southern Company Keith Duncan: Battle of the Bands Exhibit, Presented by Mabra Law” is up at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame through March 2027.
