Black Curatorial Practice

This Fall 2022 microseminar, “Black Curatorial Practice” has two goals 1) prepare for curating an exhibit (in both physical and digital spaces) of noted Black Mississippi born, Seattle-based artist James W. Washington (c.1911 - 2000), and 2) engage Black curatorial theories and practices, including on Black aesthetics, performance, and digital practices. Students will query a question rooted itself in Bridget Cooks’s excellent Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum: How might we seriously consider the aesthetics, materiality, and form of Washington’s work in the display of a museum and in virtual display/engagement, especially given the long institutional racist histories and practices of museums?

Photo: Vivian Phillips and artist Barry Johnson smile after Johnson’s sculpture of Dr. James W. Washington Jr. was unveiled at Midtown Center. (Taken by: Susan Fried)