Programs of Interest

Art Museums and the Legacies of the Dutch Slave Trade: Curating Histories, Envisioning Futures

Editor's note:

Registration is now open for the conference Art Museums and the Legacies of the Dutch Slave Trade: Curating Histories, Envisioning Futures, presented by the Center for Netherlandish Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Harvard Art Museums, and Harvard University’s Department of History of Art and Architecture. This four-part program explores efforts by art museums to deploy their spaces and their collections—which are often enmeshed with colonialism and exploitation—to present more complete narratives of and perspectives on slavery and its legacies. This conference is organized by Sarah Mallory, Kéla Jackson, and Rachel Burke, all doctoral students in Harvard University’s Department of History of Art and Architecture, and Joanna Sheers Seidenstein, the Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Curatorial Fellow in the Division of European and American Art, at the Harvard Art Museums.

April 16, 2021

PART I: Exhibiting Slavery and Representing Black Lives

Friday, April 9, 2021, 1 - 3 pm EST

Curators will discuss their work on groundbreaking projects in the Netherlands and the United States, namely the Rijksmuseum’s current Slavery exhibition, the Rembrandthuis Museum’s exhibition Here: Black in Rembrandt’s Time, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s reinstallation of its permanent collection, and the Museums Are Not Neutral initiative. They will reflect on the broader call for museums to recognize the relationship of their collections to slavery and to present-day racial injustice. Speakers include Maria Holtrop (Curator of History, Rijksmuseum), Stephanie Archangel (Junior Curator, History Department, Rijksmuseum), Diva Zumaya (Assistant Curator, European Painting and Sculpture, Los Angeles County Museum of Art), and La Tanya S. Autry (cultural organizer, co-producer of Museums Are Not Neutral, founder of the Black Liberation Center, and independent curator). For more information and to register, please visit: https://harvardartmuseums.org/calendar/exhibiting-slavery-and-representing-black-lives-art-museums-and-the-legacies-of-the-dutch-slave-trade-curating-histories-envisioning-futures-part-1 

 

PART II: De-centering/Re-centering: Forging New Museological and Historical Narratives

Friday, April 16, 2021, 1 - 3 pm EST

This session brings together historians and art historians whose work has, on the one hand, been grounded in art museum collections and, on the other, challenged traditional museological narratives of slavery’s legacies in the Netherlands and the Americas. Speakers include Vincent Brown (Charles Warren Professor of American History, Professor of African and African American Studies, and Founding Director of the History Design Studio, Harvard University), Pepijn Brandon (Assistant Professor of Economic and Social History, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Senior Researcher, International Institute of Social History), Elmer Kolfin (Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam), and Claudia Swan (Mark Steinberg Weil Professor of Art History & Archaeology, Washington University in St. Louis). For more information and to register, please visit: https://harvardartmuseums.org/calendar/de-centering-re-centering-forging-new-museological-and-historical-narratives-art-museums-and-the-legacies-of-the-dutch-slave-trade-curating-histories-envisioning-futures-part-2 

 

PART III: History, Memory, and Legacy: Jamaica Kincaid, Rosana Paulino, and Cheryl Finley in Conversation

Friday, April 23, 2021, 11 am - 12 pm EST

Renowned writer Jamaica Kincaid and groundbreaking visual artist Rosana Paulino will discuss their explorations of the legacies of slavery in their work. They will be joined in conversation by eminent art historian Cheryl Finley. For more information and to register, please visit:

https://harvardartmuseums.org/calendar/history-memory-and-legacy-jamaica-kincaid-rosana-paulino-and-cheryl-finley-in-conversation-art-museums-and-the-legacies-of-the-dutch-slave-trade-curating-histories-envisioning-futures-part-3

 

PART IV: The Work of Objects: Interpretation within and beyond Museum Walls

Friday, April 23, 2021, 1 - 2:30 pm

This session includes brief talks, followed by a roundtable discussion, by academics and museum professionals who focus on Dutch and American art and history. Speakers will discuss specific objects—ranging from the 17th to the 21st century—that have posed interpretive and museological challenges. They will also present new possibilities for considering the relationship between slavery’s past and present-day racial injustice. Speakers include Justin Brown (Ph.D. candidate, Department of the History of Art, Yale University), Ana Lucia Araujo (Full Professor and Associate Chair, Department of History, Howard University), Makeda Best (Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography, Harvard Art Museums), Nancy Jouwe (Chairwoman, BAK [basis voor actuele kunst] Supervisory Board, Utrecht; co-founder, Framer Framed; and co-founder, Mapping Slavery), Imara Limon (Curator, Amsterdam Museum), Adam Tessier (Barbara and Theodore Alfond Director of Interpretation, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and Lea van der Vinde (Curator, Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis). For more information and to register, please visit: https://harvardartmuseums.org/calendar/the-work-of-objects-interpretation-within-and-beyond-museum-walls-art-museums-and-the-legacies-of-the-dutch-slave-trade-curating-histories-envisioning-futures-part-4 

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