During the three-day program art historians, artists, and interdisciplinary scholars examine the theme, noting the multiple meanings and histories of migration and globalization and their impact on artistic production and reception of the art of African Americans and the art of the African Diaspora. Since its founding in 1990, the Colloquium has dealt with issues in the historiography of African American art and will continue this tradition this year by focusing on developing new strategies of analysis and interpretation that are anti-hegemonic, that reveal the changing realities and the efficacy of new narratives.

The colloquium presenters interrogate and recontextualize historical and contemporary developments in art and visual culture production by considering the dynamic process of change in ideas, cultures, values and technologies. What are the tropes of migration, of globalization? What are the expanded meanings of migration andglobalization? What strategies might be used to explore traditional concepts of identity, continuity and change, context and chronology? These and many other issues are examined during the Colloquium.

The Porter Colloquium sessions benefit art historians, interdisciplinary scholars, artists, educators, collectors, students, museum professionals, and the general public.

HONOREES

Robert Farris Thompson
Art Historian

Considered one of the world's foremost authorities on African and Afro-Atlantic cultures, Robert Farris Thompson has been called a brilliant thinker, tireless researcher, spellbinding lecturer (known to break into dance and to sing and drum), and writer of almost velvet prose—a towering figure in the history of art whose voice for diversity and cultural openness has made him a public intellectual of great importance.
       His colleagues in African art credit him with having transformed the fields of African and African diaspora art history. He has completely changed what the public understands about the use and context of African art, showing that art cannot be split from its maker, its use, its function, and its perception.
       Robert Farris Thompson is the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of Art at Yale University. Professor Thompson has taught at Yale since 1961, and has served as visiting curator at UCLA's Museum of Ethnic Arts (1970), at the National Gallery of Art (1974). He has organized several major exhibitions, including The Four Moments of the Sun (1981) and The Face of the Gods: Shrines and Altars of the Black Atlantic World (1985) at the National Gallery of Art. Professor Thompson has received research grants from the Ford Foundation (1962-1964), the Yale Concilium on International and Area Studies (1965), the National Institute of Medicine and Science (1975), the National Institute of the Museums of Zaire (1976), and the National Gallery of Art (1977, 1979, 1980). He has served on the Joint Committee on African Studies of the Social Science Research Council of Learned Societies (1966-1973), as Chairman on the Humanities Committee of the African Studies Association (1966-1970), and in numerous capacities at Yale.

Evangeline J. Montgomery
Arts Administrator and Artist

Arts administrator, artist, curator, consultant, lecturer, collector, cultural activist, Evangeline Juliette Montgomery, “EJ” as she is fondly known to artists, museum professionals, scholars and cultural critics, has made outstanding contributions to African American art and the art of the African Diaspora, for which she is being honored by the 18th Annual James A. Porter Colloquium on African American Art.
       Beginning in 1983, as program development officer for the Arts America Program, United States Information Agency (USIA), now the Cultural Programs Office of the U.S. Department of State, Montgomery has coordinated over 75 overseas exhibitions that regularly included solo shows of African American and women artists. In spite of the conservative political climate of the 1980s and early 1990s, Montgomery worked tirelessly to ensure that US government-sponsored programs abroad reflected the rich diversity of the citizens of the United States . 
       As an arts administrator, Montgomery, prior to joining the U.S. Department of State, served as Director and Curator of the Rainbow Sign Gallery in Berkeley , California (1971-77).  For the City of San Francisco , she served as Art Commissioner and Chairperson of the Art Committee from 1976 to 1979. From 1968 to 1977, Montgomery served as Ethnic Art Consultant to the Oakland Art Museum , curatorial division. Over the past 40 years, she has served on numerous boards of agencies, institutions and organizations in many parts of the United States .
       As an artist, EJ has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, nationally and internationally.  Her work has been included in many private and public collections such as the Paul Jones Collection at the University of Delaware , Oakland Museum , Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists ( Boston ), Illinois State University , and James E. Lewis Museum at Morgan State University , and others. She has received a number of awards and fellowships, among which include awards by the Women’s Caucus for the Arts, National Endowments for the Arts, National Conference of Artists, Brandywine Workshop Residences, American Craft Council and Blacks in Government, among many others.

2007 Colloquium
The Howard University Department of Art’s James A. Porter Colloquium is presented in conjunction with the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the African Diaspora and the Howard University Gallery of Art.