October 5 / 22 , November 16, 2022
As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic, on display at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, will be the subject of a number of panel discussions. The Wedge Collection, Canada’s most significant and biggest privately held collection committed to reflecting African diasporic culture and contemporary Black life, is the exclusive focus of the show, which is organized by Aperture. Over 100 images representing power, community, and identity are on display.
All panel discussions are free and will take place online on Zoom. Advance registration is required. To register, visit the Art Museum’s website.
Wednesday, October 5, 6–8pm ET
We Are Home: The Family Album as Activist Record, Instrument, and Model
Moderator: Liz Ikiriko. Speakers: Deepali Dewan, Aaron T. Francis, Michèle Pearson Clarke, Leslie Hewitt.
The family album typically has a larger public role in addition to its private usage as a personal repository, adding alternative stories, addressing exclusions, and articulating collective histories via the prism of personal and communal experiences. This photographic archive provides tangible evidence of the past in addition to role models for participation and communion in the present’s future-creating moment. This discussion will delve deeper into concepts of community-building, activist kinship, and everyday forms of resistance that are embedded in the very act of living captured by photographs. It will do this by taking into account the familial spirit of images assembled in the Wedge Collection and the exhibition As We Rise.
Saturday, October 22, 2–4pm ET
Dress Codes: Fashion and Community in African and Diasporic Culture
Moderator: Elliott Ramsey. Speakers: Teleica Kirkland, Caron Phinney.
Clothing conveys a story about how people define themselves, manage their visibility, and occupy space in public or private spheres by its visual presence and coded aesthetics. People of African origin and the diaspora use style as a major means of cultural expression, but the academic community has long overlooked this important contribution to the history of fashion, obscuring cultural influences and weakening thorough historical documentation. The panelists in this discussion actively contribute to the growth and development of information and resources about the heritage and relevance of African and diasporic clothing and style through their research, curatorial, and teaching practices. They discuss their working methods and the concepts that inspire them in this conversation.
Wednesday, November 16, 6–8pm ET
Tender Gestures, Radical Acts: Archiving, Collecting, and Curating Black Art and Culture
Moderator: Emilie Croning.
Archiving, gathering, and curating are essential storytelling techniques that preserve history, produce meaning, and influence conversation. As well as having the ability to communicate pressing issues and analyze the world around us, these practices have the ability to bring attention to marginalized or overlooked narratives and make connections between regional differences—cultural, social, and political—and global issues. Curatorial approaches that work with African and diasporic archives and collections are fundamentally based on concepts of resistance, redress, and representation. This discussion will examine the consequences, difficulties, and duties associated with documenting, gathering, and curating the work and cultural output of Black artists and communities, taking its lead from the Wedge Collection mandate.
Art Museum at the University of Toronto
15 King’s College Circle
Toronto Ontario M5S 3H7
Canada
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 12–5pm,
Wednesday 12–8pm
T +1 416 978 8398
[email protected]
artmuseum.utoronto.ca
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