Transformations – New Directions in Black Art has been rescheduled for
October 22-25, 2009 at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
This will be the launch event for MICA’s new Center for Race and Culture
The past year has witnessed an unprecedented series of social, political
and economic events that have thrust the role of the arts into a new
arena of definition and agency. This conference is even more important
and crucial than when it was first scheduled to be held last November
2008.
It will be a “call and response” town hall meeting that invites dialogue
between interdisciplinary artists, scholars, the community and arts
professionals. This is an opportunity to address the role of the Black
artist, who once functioned at the margin of society to a newfound
position of centrality within the global art world.
The theme of the 3rd Annual African American Art conference references
“Transformers,” a popular toy product and subsequent film that
captivated the general public with the possibilities and the challenges
that the state of transforming implies. That such images are germane to
African American visual arts is indicated by images created by
California artist David Huffman and a self-proclaimed group of
Afro-Futurists who look beyond the present and revel in the promise of
the future that we expected from advances in technology.
The image of transformation therefore amply exemplifies the rapid
changes and transmutations of blackness and African-ness which can be
observed in today’s trans-global cultural scene. The conference will
identify and explore the current modalities-some new and some
revived-that mark the means of exchange and interaction between visual
creativity and daily life. These range from the ubiquitous presence and
impact of technology-from interactive sites on the web, to iPods to
iPhones and beyond-to the implications of global perspectives on
traditional and habitual notions of self-identification through
ethnicity, race and gender.
The proliferation of these photo/image-based, digital tools in art
making suggests that once again there is a consideration of the
relationship between “art” and “craft.” Can the latter be seen as a
countercultural reaction against the cybernetic? Does skill matter in a
mechanized environment? For that matter it is also imperative to examine
the phenomenon of “star” power and how that impacts the manner in which
creators direct their careers and how this impacts the presence of black
creativity in the larger world art market.
In light of these questions posed around the role and nature of
creativity, it is also necessary to take another look at the
relationship between the arts-both on the part of creators and
institutions-with that ever-changing entity that is known as community.
What are community arts in 2008 versus 1968? Is “community” a fixed
geographic or locational entity or is it an emotional, psychological
bonding of kindred spirits across time and space? Is the community the
perceived audience of black creativity?
Transformations is the 3rd Annual African American Art Conference which
was the outcome of a meeting inspired by and hosted by Dr. Henry Louis
Gates, Jr., Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and
African-American Research at Harvard University in 2005.
MICA is pleased to host Transformations as the official launch of the
new Center for Race and Culture (CRC), an interactive Center for research to investigate the dynamics of race,culture and it’s relationship to art-makings, taditions and practice. It will prepare students for informed
leadership roles in the regional, national and international art world.
The CRC will be a site where scholars, doctoral candidates, artists,
critics, musicians, actors and historians can research or create events,
exhibitions, projects or performances that focus on the aesthetic
dynamics of race and culture with the intent to break down racial
barriers, build bridges of cultural understanding and cultivate
meaningful and productive relationships for the future of our world.
The Transformations conference seeks to use this opportunity to pay
critical attention to the role of the art maker in society and
institutions committed to the education, exhibition, research and
preservation of the cultural heritage and aesthetic agency in the first
decade of the twenty-first century. The catharsis of shifts and changes
that have always been the hallmark of a society’s creativity and
contribution to history-past, present and future-will be explored in the
dynamics of this conference through interactions with artists, scholars,
critics, community activists, educators and gallery entrepreneurs.
The intent of the conference is to create and stimulate dialogue by
examining the nature, range and the myriad of “black” identities that
have emerged and been redefined within the larger society as a result of
the urgencies of globalism, the environment, politics, the economy and
technology. It is hoped that this will encourage and foster new
relationships, partnerships and collaborations for future initiatives in
the arts across cultures, breaking down or dissolving old boundaries to
make way for a world where the artist and the arts are strategic to not
just image and object making but crucial to problem solving for the
future of our world and our communities.
Transformations will be supported by a collaborating partnership of arts
and cultural institutions in the city of Baltimore that include the
Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and
Culture, the James E. Lewis Museum at Morgan State University, the
Center for Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University, the Joshua
Johnson Foundation at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walters Art
Museum, Maryland Art Place, Creative Alliance at the Patterson, C.
Grimaldis Gallery, Goya Contemporary, Galerie Myrtis and Irvine
Contemporary in Washington, DC.
Panel Discussions
* “Art and Craft: Closing the Gaps”
* “Technology and the Arts: Accessibility in the Marketplace”
* “Genius Factor Vs. Star Power”
* “Popular Culture: New Genres and Cross Over”
* “The Artist, the Institution and the Community: Redefining a
Relationship”
* “Brave New Worlds: Globalism, Ethnicity and Nationalism”
Special Events
* Exhibition reception for Transformers II – More Than Meets the Eye
* Keynote presentation DJ SPOOKY (aka Paul D. Miller) – That
Subliminal Kid
* Open galleries & dance party at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum
* “Synergy” performance at MICA’s BBOX Theater in Gateway, our newest
addition to campus
* Jazz/Gospel Brunch Reception, James E. Lewis Museum, Morgan State
University
* Sunday Salon Receptions at Galerie Myrtis, Grimaldis Gallery, Goya
Contemporary, and Loring Cornish’s Praise Houses
Who’s Attending
Conference Participants http://www.mica.edu/
* Derrick Adams, MICA painting faculty and curatorial director of
Rush Arts Gallery & Resource Center, New York
* Dr. Andrea Barnwell, director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine
Art, Atlanta
* Willie Birch ’73, painter, sculptor, and educator, The Porch, New
Orleans
* Berrisford Booth, painter and digital artist, Lehigh University
* Iona Rozeal Brown, painter whose works are inspired by ganguro
fashion, Washington
* Rashida Bumbray, assistant curator, The Kitchen, New York
* Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, interdisciplinary artist,
Massachusetts College of Art
* Sonya Clark, fiber artist, Virginia Commonwealth University
* Brett Cook, public and collaborative artist, Disney
* Renee Cox, photographer, mixed-media artist, New York
* Kim Curry-Evans, director of 40 Acres Art Gallery, Sacramento,
Calif.
* Sandra Jackson-Dumont, adjunct curator and deputy director of
Education & Public Programs, Seattle Art Museum
* Maren Hassinger, sculptor and director of MICA’s Rinehart School of
Sculpture
* David Huffman, artist and Afro-futurist, San Francisco
* Ulysses Jenkins, performance artist, Los Angeles
* Philip Mallory Jones, multi-media artist, Ohio University
* Stephen Marc, photographer, Arizona State University
* Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, editor of Sound
Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture
* Senga Nengudi, multidisciplinary artist, Colorado Springs, Colo.
* Senam Okudzeto, painter and 2002 Pollock-Krasner Award winner,
Ghana
* Aminah Robinson, fiber artist and 2004 MacArthur Fellow, Columbus,
Ohio
* Deirdre Scott, director of technology, Studio Museum, New York
* Danny Simmons, artist, novelist, poet, creator of HBO’s Def Poetry,
and founder of Rush Arts and Corridor galleries, New York
* Dr. Lowery Sims H ’88, curator, Museum of Arts and Design, New York
* Franklin Sirmans, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the
Menil Collection, Houston
* Shinique Smith ’92, ’03, multidisciplinary artist, New York
* Dr. David Terry, executive director of Reginald F. Lewis Museum of
Maryland African American History & Culture, Baltimore
* Randall Vega, Director of Cultural Affairs for Baltimore Office of
Promotion & The Arts (BOPA)
* Dr. Ben Vinson, director, Center for Africana Studies at Johns
Hopkins University
* Kara Walker, internationally renowned artist and 1997 MacArthur
Fellow, New York
* Dr. Deborah Willis H’06, art photographer, historian of African
American photography, and 2001 MacArthur Fellow, New York
* Saya Woolfalk, experimental multi-media artist, New York
