Cohosted with The HistoryMakers and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), Manilow Senior Curator Naomi Beckwith leads a panel conversation featuring luminaries in Chicago’s art world including artist Richard Hunt and Masequa Myers, Executive Director of the South Side Community Art Center, about the past and future of black space in Chicago. Starting with the Great Migration and stretching into the ways black artists find space and community in our contemporary art world, the panel dives into the particularities of how Chicago has been shaped by its racial history.
Held on ASALH’s Founders’ Day, the program will tie in the association’s 2019 theme of urban migration. The discussion will examine the Great Migration’s continued impact on art in Chicago—with particular consideration to how African Americans make up the majority of Chicago’s population but are often underrepresented. The discussion seeks to illuminate the past and the present and consider where the city is headed as a creative hub.
MCA Talks highlight cutting-edge thinking and contemporary art practices across disciplines. This talk is organized by The HistoryMakers and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), in collaboration with MCA Curator January Parkos Arnall.