Talk

The art world is a microcosm of the society we live in. It should come as no surprise then that structural racism and capitalism permeates how we look at art; it informs the work that gets prioritized as important and taught in the many classrooms that shape the arts for generations to come. This panel discussion will address the inherent issues of the structures in place at institutions of higher learning that seem content or complacent in continuing to teach an art history that is void of the intellectual and avant-garde contributions by artists of color. Together we will examine cultural erasure and discuss the nature of this oversight with the intention of identifying solutions to the problem.

Dr. Ruthie Wilson Gilmore is director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics and professor of geography in Earth and Environmental Sciences at The City University of New York. She is a cofounder of many social justice organizations, including California Prison Moratorium Project, Critical Resistance and the Central California Environmental Justice Network. Gilmore has been a leading scholar and speaker on topics including prisons, racial capitalism, oppositional movements, state-making and more. She is the author of the book Golden Gulag, which was awarded the Lora Romero First Book Publication Prize for the best book in American Studies by the American Studies Association in 2008.

Robin J. Hayes is a scholar, filmmaker and interactive media designer whose recent film Black and Cuba has screened to film festivals, educational institutions and nonprofits throughout the US and internationally.

Tomashi Jackson was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Los Angeles, California. She holds a MFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale School of Art. She earned a degree of Science Master of Art, Culture and Technology from the M.I.T. School of Architecture and Planning in 2012. Her work has been featured in BOMBLOG, The Harvard Crimson, The Yale Daily News, The Yale Herald, Art Papers, Artnet News, and Hyperallergic. She is represented by Jack Tilton Gallery in New York City and teaches Drawing and Interrelated Media Practice at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She lives and works in New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Cheryl R. Riley is a National Endowment for the Arts recipient whose visual art and furniture designs are in the collections of the Smithsonian and the Mint Museum of Architecture and Design, as well as in public installations in the cities of New York and Atlanta, among others. She has served on the executive boards of major institutions such as the groundbreaking Capp Street Project, the Museum of Arts and Design and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's SECA council. Cheryl is developing several installation-based and performance projects through residencies such as a recently awarded Vermont Studio Center fellowship. She has also written about art and artists for national publications and is a private and corporate art advisor with a focus on artists of the African Diaspora.