‘Giants: Art from Alicia Keys & Swizz Beats Collection brings Black artistic legacy to Atlanta

“This collection is your collection. This is everyone in here’s collection. The Dean Collection is your collection” said Kasseem Daoud Dean, record producer, rapper, and DJ, who is more commonly known as Swizz Beatz. The opening of Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys took place at the High Museum of Art on Friday, Sept. 13.Dean’s statement encapsulates the essence of the exhibition—a celebration of Black art, culture, and legacy. Giants, which runs from September 14, 2024, through January 19, 2025, is the first major presentation of the Dean Collection in the south. There is a hope that the collection will leave a lasting mark on the region, according to Dean.Friday the 13th, often considered a day of superstition, instead marked a historic moment for Atlanta as Swizz Beatz (whose birthday also fell on this day) and his wife, the Grammy award-winning artist Alicia Augello Cook, or as she is professionally known, Alicia Keys, visited the city to kick off their collection’s first stop on a national tour. The exhibition offers a focused selection of works by Black diasporic artists, ranging from 20th-century icons such as Nick Cave and Gordon Parks to contemporary innovators like...