What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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8 WHAT'S UP! JANUARY 28-FEBRUARY 3, 2018 Deeper Discussion Artists converge on Crystal Bridges COVER STORY JOCELYN MURPHY NWA Democrat-Gazette C rystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville presents its first temporary exhibition of the year starting Feb. 3, and with it, a momentous symposium featuring artists represented in the exhibition. "Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power" assembles works by more than 60 African-American artists, created during the 1960s, '70s and '80s in response to the civil rights movement. The collection, co-curated by Crystal Bridges contemporary art curator Lauren Haynes in collaboration with the Tate Modern museum in London, provides an introspective look at the role African-American artists served during the social and political movements of the time, and how their influence has endured today. Though black artists living in specific parts of the country, or working in specific media, have been closely examined by art historians and curators before, Haynes asserts "Soul of a Nation" is a significant contribution to the conversation about the legacy of black artists during this tumultuous time. "This exhibition is … a very particular time in our nation's history. And work that was created as people were processing and living that shows the connection that artists are always taking in everything that's happening [around them] and responding and reflecting to what's going on," she shares. "The newest work in the exhibition is close to 35 years old, so I think that lets us see how art is timeless in a way, and [how] things made in a particular moment can still have resonance in the present and allow us to think about where we are and where we have been." That dialogue between past and present comes full circle for the museum as it hosts a daylong symposium featuring several artists whose work is included in the exhibition. Conversations and panel discussions with artists, curators of the exhibition and experts on art history will reflect on art, politics, music and community in the age of black power. "SHADOWS" BY ADGERS COWANS, 1961 — Cowans will speak on a panel about photogra- phy with other surviving founders of New York's Kamoinge Workshop. Deborah Willis, one of the nation's leading histori- ans of African-American photography and cura- tors of African-American culture, will moderate the panel. "The theme of the exhibition invites viewers to bear witness, contemplate, celebrate, appreciate and travel along with the members of the workshop ," Willis muses. "The ir photographs awaken us to the lives of a group of photographers who creatively work ed together; and Kamoinge as a collective has spent most of their existence searching for a 'truth' in their photographs. These photographers know that there is much more work to be done; this discussion is another intervention and gives us time to pause as we enjoy, meditate, and think as we learn more about how they ma de photographs . " Courtesy photo