The perspectives of Black artists and curators brought together in this research guide are as varied and complicated as the Black experience in the United States. With consulting curator Allison Glenn, we illuminate the histories, issues, and ideas voiced in our 2018 episode Black in America. The issue expands learning opportunities through a timeline of landmark exhibitions and a select bibliography.
Features: Sanford Biggers, Theaster Gates, Thelma Golden, Fahamu Pecou, Jefferson Pinder, Johanne Rahaman, Deborah Roberts, Amy Sherald, and Hamza Walker
Acknowledgements: This issue is made possible through the generosity of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, CBMAA’s Associate Curator of Contemporary Art Allison Glenn, and the Museum’s Black Staff Resource Group.
Issue 7 Cover Image: Jefferson Pinder, float, a collaborative performance project on Lake Michigan. Chicago, Illinois, 2019. Image courtesy of the artist.
Publications Editor: Sarah Rovang
Sound Editor: Anamnesis Audio
Designers: Julia Rudo, Freya Schlemmer, Mary Robnett
Consulting Curator: Allison Glenn
Allison M. Glenn is Associate Curator, Contemporary Art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. She was a member of the curatorial team for State of the Art 2020, which opened simultaneously at Crystal Bridges and the Momentary in early 2020. She also spearheaded the adaptation of Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal… (2020) at Crystal Bridges, the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s work, organized by the Portland Art Museum.
For Crystal Bridges, Glenn focuses on how public sculpture can activate and engage the museum’s 120-acre campus with outdoor exhibitions such as Color Field, which opened Summer 2019, and traveled to The Baker Museum at Artis-Naples, and the University of Houston. Glenn has produced exhibitions within the galleries that explore concepts of identity, language, and relationships in art, such as Personal Space(2018) and Small Talk (2019).
Glenn was Manager of Publications and Curatorial Associate for Prospect.4:The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp, curated by Trevor Schoonmaker, 2017-2018. Highlighted in this research guide, Glenn’s curatorial project Out of Easy Reach was on view simultaneously at DePaul Art Museum, Stony Island Arts Bank and Gallery 400, in Chicago, and traveled to Grunwald Gallery at Indiana University-Bloomington.
Related Links: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Allison Glenn
