Exploring the spring 2020 Teaching Gallery exhibition, Truths and Reckonings: The Art of Transformative Racial Justice, this program features a recorded gallery tour followed by a live Q&A with the exhibition curator Geoff Ward, professor of African and African-American Studies in Arts & Sciences. The recording was originally created as part of a training session for the police departments of Washington University and the City of Clayton. With a walk-through of the exhibition, Ward discusses how art and art institutions contribute to transitional justice by confronting histories of racist violence and their legacies today. For the installation he selected artworks and visual culture materials from the Museum’s collection and Washington University Libraries that address racism—including Rashid Johnson’s Thurgood in the Hour of Chaos (2009), Kara Walker and Klaus Bürgel’s Golddigger (2003), Thomas Nast’s 1864 political cartoon Compromise with the South, and the Documenting Ferguson digital archive. Attendees are encouraged to participate in the live Q&A immediately following the recorded tour.

In Conversation

“In Conversation” is a series of live online talks with artists, art historians, and scholars, exploring the intersections of art, history, and contemporary life. Bring your own questions and insights to these lively discussions from wherever you are.

Image credit

Installation view, Truths and Reckonings: The Art of Transformative Racial Justice, 2020. Photo by Joshua White / JWPictures.com