Harrison K. Smith’s Sed Valorem art exhibit at the Mattress Factory museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Credit: Mattress Factory museum
An Artist Tackles the Racial Wealth Gap, and Then Tries to Close It
Working with artist Harrison K. Smith, a museum in Pittsburgh takes out a mortgage to compensate a Black family for the over-taxation of their home.
In an upstairs room of Pittsburgh’s Mattress Factory museum, a collection of boxes sits under a plastic cover along with a djembe drum, Senegalese masks and framed photos of Black people.
The items were removed from a home owned by a Black family after they received an appraisal on their property and are now the centerpiece of Sed Valorem, by artist Harrison K. Smith. A second appraisal without those objects signaling Black ownership — and a white person pretending to be the owner — valued the house at $36,000 more than the original appraisal.