Scholarship: The Colloquium
2005 | 16th Annual James A. Porter Colloquium
Our 2005 Porter Colloquium theme, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Professor James A. Porter’s birth, draws from the core of Professor Porter’s work in defining African American art as a distinct area of study in American art history. The theme traces developments in African American art history from Porter’s Modern Negro Art (1943) through David C. Driskell’s Two Centuries of Black American Art (1976), through Deborah Willis’ Reflections in Black (2000) and onto Michael D. Harris’s Colored Pictures: Race and Visual Representation (2003) and Lisa Farrington’s Creating Their Own Image (2005). This year’s Colloquium invites further investigations of influential essays that reflect divergent poetics as well as interpretative strategies on African American Art. This body of publications have reframed the issues and created new models for research, criticism and pedagogical practices.
Keynote Address
Richard A. Long
A true renaissance man of the arts, Dr. Richard Long, Professor Emeritus exemplifies the high level of scholarship and dedication in academia. Long has an extensive history in the world of academia. With diverse research interests, such as visual art, music, literature, and dance, he has taught and created courses aligned with his areas of study.
Beginning his professorial career at West Virginia State College, Long held teaching appointments at Morgan State, Hampton University, Harvard University, and Emory University. A faculty member of Emory from 1986 to 2001, Long is the distinguished Haygood Professor, Emeritus in the Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts.
A man of many letters, Long studied at Temple University where he received his bachelor and master degrees. He then attended the University of Paris on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1957-58. Long received his doctorate from University of Poiters.
Long serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals,such as the Langston Hughes Bulletin and the Zora Neale Hurston Bulletin. Long has published books which include The Black Traditions in American Dance (1989) and African Americans: A Portrait (1993). Long also serves on the boards of the High Museum of Art and the Society of Dance History Scholars. He is also a commissioner for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art.
Lecture on David C. Driskell
Tritobia Hayes Benjamin
Exhibiting dedication to education, Dr. Tritobia Hayes Benjamin, contributes to Howard’s fine art and art history legacy. She has been affiliated with Howard’s Art Department since 1970, following in the footsteps of James A. Porter and her mentor, Lois Mailou Jones.
Benjamin, a graduate of Howard University, is associate dean of the Division of Fine Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences. Benjamin, along with her duties as dean, serves in the capacity of professor of art history and director of the Gallery of Art at Howard. Holding bachelor and master of arts degrees in art history, from Howard, she earned her doctorate from University of Maryland in the same specialization.
Benjamin’s research area is African American art with particular emphasis on fine arts faculty, past and present, at Howard, like Lois Mailou Jones. Benjamin, a student of Jones, wrote The Life and Art of Lois Mailou Jones (1994) and curated the exhibition The World of Lois Mailou Jones. The Life and Art of Lois Mailou Jones is one of several publication, essay, and article contributions to the field of African American art.
Lecture on James A. Porter
Edmund Barry Gaither
Edmund Barry Gaither has established himself as a leader in the museum profession. Director and curator of the Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists (NCAAA), since 1969, Gaither has curated, lectured nationally and internationally, and taught college-level courses. His commitment to the visual arts is exhibited in his accomplishments in his career.
Educated at Morehouse College, where he received a bachelor of arts degree and Brown University where he earned a master of fine arts degree, Gaither taught African American art at Spelman College. After a year of instructing at Spelman, he became Chairman of the Art Department of the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts and the Director of the Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists. At the time, the museum was only a concept of Dr. Elma Lewis.With a commitment from the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston to aid in the fruition of the museum, the museum came to be and a special relationship began. The collaboration of the NCAAA and MFA afforded Gaither the opportunity to serve as a special consultant at the MFA and to transition into a curatorial position.
As a curator at MFA Boston, Gaither organized nine exhibitions, two of which were monumental to African American art history: “Afro-American Artists: New York and Boston,” and “Lois Mailou Jones: Reflective Moments.” The Lois Mailou Jones exhibition was the first one-person exhibition of an African American woman at a major museum.
Gaither, successful as a curator, developed the museum from a conceptual idea to an institution that boasts a collection of three thousand objects. The museum has a thirty-two year history of exhibiting and celebrating visual artists of the Diaspora.
Aside from his curatorial and directorial obligations, Gaither is active in the arts community. He was cofounder of the African American Museums Association, now known as the Association for African American museums, and served as its first president. Gaither also participated in President George W. Bush’s Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
4th Annual David C. Driskell Lecture
Sharon Patton
Dr. Sharon F. Patton, a pace setter in the history of African American and African art, has carved a significant path in the field of art history. Her roles in academia and the museum world are evidence of the contributions needed to further the scholarly pursuits of historians and artists in African American art history.
Receiving her doctorate in art history, from Northwestern University in 1980, Patton began her career in academia, teaching at University of Houston and University of Maryland. Tenured at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in the art history department, Patton served as the director of the Center for Afro-American and African Studies. During her academic appointments, spanning three decades, Patton forayed into the world of art exhibiting institutions—museums and university galleries. Prior to her current position, Patton was the John G.W. Cowles Director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College. She also directed the galleries at Montclair State University. Patton has not only served in the capacity of director; she has curated critically acclaimed exhibitions. As the chief curator at the Studio Museum of Harlem, Patton organized “Home: Contemporary Urban Images by Black Photographers,” “The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s,” and the 1991 retrospective of master artist Romare Bearden, “Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden, 1940-1987.”
The exhibition, “Memory and Metaphor” provided Patton with the first of two published books. Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden, published in 1991 to accompany the retrospective, provides an insightful, analytical overview of Bearden’s oeuvre. Patton’s second text, a standard for many courses on African American art, African American Art (1998), establishes the artistic production of black Americans dating from post-colonialism to the mid 1990s. This book received Choice’s Outstanding Academic Book of the Year award. Along with these significant books, Patton has contributed numerous articles, essays, and catalogs on visual issues of the Diaspora, adding to the discourse of African American art history.
Patton’s experience as director, curator, and academician prepared her for her current position as director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, the only national museum dedicated to art of African peoples.
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