Funded by a generous grant from the Ford Foundation, this symposium is scheduled to coincide with the 30th Anniversary of the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University. The symposium will be attended by scholars, artists, curators and other experts in the field of African American and African Diaspora art and visual cultures. The focus of the symposium will be on visual expressions of the Black Arts Movement in the United States from the 1960s to the present. However, this topic will serve as a springboard for an intellectual exchange on current issues related to African American and African Diaspora art and visual cultures. The symposium will take a critical look at the role of art in activism and the community as spearheaded by the Black Arts Movement in the aftermath of the Black Power and civil rights movements. The symposium will also deal with emerging discourses in the field of Black art and visual culture and their intersections with issues of race, class, gender and sexuality. The proceedings of the symposium will be published as a book in collaboration with a major publisher.

THE SYMPOSIUM IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC