announcement

Artistic Crossings of the Black Atlantic: The Migratory Aesthetic in
Contemporary Art

An Artist Symposium Organized by The Clark and the Williams College
Museum of Art
March 1, 2008

This symposium invites five acclaimed artists-multi-media artist Maria
Magdalena Campos-Pons, sculptor Willie Cole, British filmmaker Isaac
Julien, photographer Hank Willis Thomas, and installation artist and
MacArthur Fellow Fred Wilson-to discuss the Black Atlantic aesthetic.
Through transatlantic connections among Africa, Britain, the
Caribbean, and the United States, black intellectuals and literary
figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Richard Wright fashioned a Black
Atlantic culture that made a central contribution to the modernist
aesthetic. Today this Black Atlantic aesthetic extends into the realm
of the visual as international artists critically engage cross-
Atlantic migration as a principal focus of their work.

9:00 am: Registration and Breakfast, Clark Café

10:00 am: Introductions by Symposium Conveners
Michael Ann Holly, Director, Research and Academic Program, the Clark
Lisa Corrin, Class of 1956 Director, Williams College Museum of Art
Peter Erickson, Visiting Professor of Humanities, Williams College

10:30 am: Isaac Julien

11:00 am: Discussion
Moderated by Kobena Mercer, cultural critic and Spring 2008 Clark Fellow

11:30 am: Coffee break

11:45 am: Fred Wilson

12:15 pm Discussion
Moderated by Francesca T. Royster, Associate Professor, DePaul
University

12:45 pm: Lunch

2:00 pm: Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons

2:30 pm: Discussion
Moderated by C. Ondine Chavoya, Assistant Professor of Art, Williams
College

3:00 pm: Willie Cole and Hank Willis Thomas

3:30 pm: Discussion
Moderated by Natasha Becker, Coordinator for Mellon Initiatives, the
Clark, and Leslie Wingard, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual
Culture, Williams College

4:00 pm: Coffee break

4:15 pm: Panel Discussion and Conclusion
Moderated by Lisa Corrin and Peter Erickson, Williams College

5:30 pm: Reception and Exhibition Viewing at Williams College Museum
of Art:
Unchained Legacies and William Kentridge Prints

Organized by the Clark and the Williams College Museum of Art

$20, $10 for members; students free