September 26, 2024
Wendel A. White, Distinguished Professor of Art, Stockton University; 2021 Robert Gardner Fellow in Photography, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University
Cheryl Finley, Inaugural Director of the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective; Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Art & Visual Culture; Spelman College; Associate Professor, Department of Art & Visual Studies, Cornell University
Leigh Raiford, Professor of African American Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Deborah Willis, University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
Conversation moderated by Brenda Tindal, Chief Campus Curator, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Visual artist Wendel A. White photographs material culture, objects, documents, and books held in public collections to explore the complexities of American history, slavery, abolition, concepts of race, and Black life and culture. In this program, marking the launch of his book Wendel A. White: Manifest | Thirteen Colonies (Radius Books/Peabody Museum Press, 2024), White will engage in a conversation with contributors to the book. They will discuss White’s body of work, the construction of race within the archival imaginary, and the ways in which artifacts, material culture, art, and photography shape historical narratives, memories, and contemporary perspectives on Black life and culture.
Cosponsored by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology; the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture; the Office of the Chief Campus Curator, Harvard University; the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative; EDIBA Initiatives at the Office of the Librarian, Harvard University; and ArtsThursdays, a university-wide initiative supported by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts.