Imagine an anti-racist art world at SAIC – ARTnews.com

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In the wake of Black Lives Matter’s protests across the United States in 2020, arts institutions around the world have attempted to tackle the systemic racism that permeates their institution, whether that is by hiring black curators, by acquiring works. by black artists or by organizing exhibitions that highlight the works of artists from the African diaspora. At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), its newly formed Anti-Racism Committee launched a three-part lecture series, titled “Towards an Anti-Racist Art Ecosystem,” to discuss these issues.

The series brought together art professionals and academics to discuss segregation in institutions and how students might find ways to overcome obstacles to creating new futures. The first conference, held in April, focused on the Chicago arts scene, kicked off in April. The second, held earlier this week, broadened the scope of the initiative: Sampada Aranke, assistant professor at SAIC, led a panel on building an anti-racist arts ecosystem at the national level.

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“We want to share success stories with students,” Aranke said during the panel. “I’m not just talking about world-renowned examples of art, but examples of people who have built pathways in lasting collaboration with their communities.”

Aranke’s panel included artist Bredan Fernandes; Allison Glenn, senior curator and director of public art at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston; Nancy Marie Mithlo, professor of gender studies at the University of California at Los Angeles; and Deana Haggag, Program Officer at the Mellon Foundation.

Of the panelist, Aranke said they each approached creating anti-racist futures from different angles: “Someone like Nancy [Marie Mithlo] comes the position that institutions are broken, that they cannot be fully relied on, and that this should be recognized. Meanwhile, someone like Glenn reflects on how to work with communities that are generally excluded from these institutions and how to overcome those obstacles. “

At the heart of this week’s panel was creating equity in the art world. Haggag reflected on when she realized she had come to a position of power and how she could harness that for change. “Something no one has ever told me is that the day you have a job, the moment you become a curator, the second you have a big exhibition or publish a book, you are now on the side of the power, ”Haggag said. “There are a lot of things you have to do to ask yourself how this power can be used to make room for the helpless without accidentally comparing yourself to them. “

Glenn spoke of a recent exhibit she hosted earlier this year: “Promise, Witness, Remembrance,” at the Speed ​​Art Museum in Louisville, Ky., Which paid homage to Breonna Taylor. Her method for the show, she said, was to invite as many people as possible to give their opinion. “I know that students, and others, see the Conservatives as such a singular authority,” Glenn said. “But I want to share this example of creating space for other authority voices.”

As part of these community-driven efforts, Breonna Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, was also asked to advise the exhibit. Glenn also worked with the museum’s community engagement strategist, Toya Northington, to engage with various Louisville residents to learn more about what they would like to see from an exhibit like the one she was planning. One request was to include more Louisville-based artists on the show, and Glenn added the work of five photographers who had documented the protests in Louisville following Taylor’s murder.

“[The] decentralizing my voice and my authority makes for, I would say, a very successful approach to making this exhibit, ”said Glenn. “I had the opportunity to gain critical insight from people who got involved in the conversation. “

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