Both/And is a free, virtual programmatic series that takes an inclusive and innovative approach to understanding the breadth and complexities of the American Folk Art Museum’s collection.
Inspired by artist and writer Lorraine O’Grady who uses the concept of Both/And to think in a non-hierarchical way, this series will examine the Museum’s collection beyond binary ideas of untrained vs. skilled artists, craft vs. art, and amateur vs. fine art, in order to provide a more inclusive narrative of art. Conceived as a series of investigations, Both/And will engage critically with classed, raced, gendered, and ableist formations that have often circumscribed the reading of objects and their makers within a museum context.
Exploring works made by folk and self-taught artists including Judith Scott, Martha Ann Honeywell, James Castle, Emery Blagdon, and Martín Ramírez, this series will center around Luce Assistant Curator Brooke Wyatt’s continued work to produce collection-based exhibitions that promote an expanded view of American art.
Wyatt will lead each program alongside Mathilde Walker-Billaud, Curator of Programs and Engagement at AFAM, and a guest speaker engaged in art practices and scholarship. Each program will take place over Zoom with ASL interpretation and live captioning in English. See below for an ongoing list of programs:
Crip* Materiality with Jessica Cooley
September 21, 2023
On September 21, Wyatt will invite curator and scholar Jessica A. Cooley to present her curatorial framework of crip materiality, which addresses the unseen ableism in the care, conceptualization, and exhibition of material objects in museum institutions. The speakers will highlight the ethical questions raised in the collection, interpretation, and display of works by artists including James Castle, Judith Scott, Martha Ann Honeywell, and Martín Ramírez, as well as the collection of hand-tinted vernacular photographs on view in the exhibition Material Witness: Folk and Self-Taught Artists at Work.
Watch a recording of the program here.
Immaterial Mediators with Julianne Swartz
October 19, 2023
Wyatt will be joined by Julianne Swartz, a sculptor who creates immersive installations, combining intangible elements, like sound, light, air and magnetism, with a variety of materials like ceramics or glass. Focusing on works in Material Witness, the speakers will discuss how historical and contemporary artists such as Judith Scott, Emery Blagdon and Melvin Edward Nelson transform everyday materials into objects of intimacy. This talk will offer the opportunity to reflect on the use of resources at hand, and the ways in which materials can record and conduct earth’s unseen forces.
Watch a recording of the program here.
Free
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