This event will be held virtually. Registration required.
Institute for Comparative Literature and Society
Cosponsored by the Institute for Research in African-American Studies and the Department for African-American and African Diaspora studies.
Part of our “Art and Politics,” Understanding Systemic Racism initiative
The Practice of Restitution: Diasporic Archive and Artform
Overarching questions: How far can artform redress gaps in historical narratives, and can contemporary creative production work as a primary document? (If ancestors are with you as you paint, then it is a primary document.) How do film, paintings, art curation, and/or cuisine tease, stretch, or embolden memory? Does this “restore” a lineage or stories? What role does verbal description/ text/ written word play in pairing with these archival expressions—if any? Is non-verbal/silent or non-textual artform open-ended, in terms of objective or story? If so, does the indeterminateness of a non-verbal creative production/archive speak towards African diasporic tradition? Maybe it’s not meant to be precise, or binary, or settled. And perhaps the emphasis is not to remedy past violence, but instead to present “impossible” stories/histories, to insist on impossible future dreaming (ernesto, sun ra, etc.). What is your imagined impossible and irrational world, either broadly or as it relates to artform?
Lauren Tate-Baeza in conversation with with Thabisile Griffin (ICLS Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Racisms).
Registration can be found here.
Join us for a conversation with Lauren Tate Baeza on the limits and possibilities of museum culture, restitution in artform, and interrogating exhibition in the realm of African arts.
Lauren Tate Baeza is the Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art at the High Museum of Art, overseeing a collection of cultural masks, sculpture, and beadwork, as well as fine art paintings, prints, and ceramics. Previously, she served as Director of Exhibitions at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, where she organized sixteen temporary exhibits and installations and curated the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection. An advocate for the efficacy of art to address some of the world’s most challenging problems, Baeza populated panel discussions with artists and led the #artforequaldignity social media campaign to ensure their inclusion alongside politicians and human rights experts. In addition to her work in museums, Baeza led and consulted with environmental and community development initiatives in Kenya and Uganda; and she speaks at conferences, universities, and federal departments on a range of topics related to Africa and the African Diaspora. Baeza holds a Master of Arts in African Studies from University of California, Los Angeles; a Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies from California State University, Northridge; and studied curation at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. She has been featured on NPR and PBS, as well as in Associated Press News, ART PAPERS, Arts ATL, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine, which honored her as one of Atlanta Tribune’s Women of Excellence in 2018.
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