April 17–18, 2015
The Art Institute of Chicago
Modern Wing
Nichols Trustee Suite
159 East Monroe Street
Chicago, IL 60601
SAIC Columbus Auditorium
280 South Columbus Drive
Chicago, IL 60603
Free and open to the public. Registration is required. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. To register, please contact Drea Howenstein at [email protected] or Sonja Falke at [email protected].
“The Wall of Respect and People’s Art Since 1967″ is a symposium that launches a two-year critical conversation on the Wall of Respect that leads up to the mural’s 50th anniversary in 2017.
In the summer of 1967, during a time of political turbulence, the visual artists of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), together with muralist William Walker, painted a group mural on the side of a semi-abandoned, two-story building on the South Side of Chicago.
Known as the Wall of Respect, the highly visible community artwork celebrated black heroes, served as a platform for performance and rallies, and engendered a sense of collective ownership within the neighborhood, inspiring community mural movements around the US and the world.
This symposium invites the artists to revisit their creative political acts and to reflect on the Wall’s legacy in a public conversation with other artists and educators. Through moderated roundtables, panels, and open discussions, the symposium will address the Wall’s contributions to the artistic and political movements of its time and its continuing relevance to current times.
Featuring:
– Wadsworth Jarrell, Wall of Respect artist and Founding Member of AFRICOBRA
– Cleveland Siddha Webber, Wall of Respect artist and poet
– Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee), poet, Founder and President of Third World Press
– Romi Crawford, Associate Professor in Visual and Critical Studies and Liberal Arts, SAIC
– Faheem Majeed, artist, curator, and Associate Director of the School of Art & Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago
– Wall of Respect artists: Darryl Cowherd, Bob Crawford, Eddie Harris, Florence Hawkins, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Carolyn Lawrence, Roy Lewis, Norman Parish III, Robert Sengstacke, and Eugene “Edaw” Wade
See the full schedule here.
The symposium is funded by the Terra Foundation of American Art; hosted by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the South Side Community Art Center; and supported by the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum and Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, DePaul University, and Guild Literary Complex, in partnership with cultural institutions working in solidarity to honor the original artists in the Wall of Respect 2017 celebration.
About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
A leader in educating artists, designers, and scholars since 1866, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has an educational philosophy built upon an interdisciplinary approach to art and design, giving undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students unparalleled opportunities to develop their creative and critical abilities, while working with renowned faculty who include many of the leading practitioners in their fields.
