Extra Credit | What Isn’t Contemporary Art...
Date and time
Location
Institute of Contemporary Art
118 South 36th Street Philadelphia, PA 19104Description
EXTRA CREDIT is a new education series that aims to provide a general overview of contemporary art and to demystify the field for those outside of the art world. It is ideal for anyone interested in learning more and for those looking to further engage with exhibitions and museums. Instructors are local artists, curators, and scholars. Classes will take place on Sundays at 12pm from June 4 through July 30.
What Isn't Contemporary Art: A Class to Consider the Limits of Our Time
Taught by Robert Blackson and Kelli Morgan
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Coming soon.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS
Robert Blackson
Robert Blackson has been the Director of Temple Contemporary at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art since 2011. Previously serving as Curator of Public Programs at Nottingham Contemporary, one of the UK’s newest public contemporary art centers, Blackson worked with numerous artists, universities, and writers to develop an eclectic and discursive program of live events, performances, lectures, and screenings. Prior to joining Nottingham Contemporary, Blackson was curator of BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle/Gateshead, UK. Here, at the UK's largest non-collecting contemporary art gallery, Blackson organized and curated exhibitions with numerous international artists including Sarah Sze, Shahryar Nashat, and Matt Stokes. Before moving to BALTIC, Blackson was curator at the University of Sunderland's Reg Vardy Gallery. As curator of this university contemporary art gallery for over four years, Blackson initiated a public art program, international publishing house, and numerous solo exhibitions with artists such as Jimmie Durham (co-curated with Candice Hopkins), Minerva Cuevas, Christoph Büchel, Brian Chippendale, Julianne Swartz, Anthony McCall, Harry Smith, and Big Chief of the Yellow Pocahontas Mardi Gras Indian Tribe, Darryl Montana. Blackson has contributed to a variety of catalogues and publications, including Art Journal, Cabinet, and Labyrinth, and he has lectured internationally on issues related to contemporary art practice. He is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, and in 2012 was named an Andy Warhol Curatorial Fellow. Blackson’s most recent projects include Symphony for a Broken Orchestra (2016/2017), reForm (2015/2016), and Funeral for a Home (2014).
Kelli Morgan
Originally from Detroit, MI., Kelli Morgan, a scholar, curator, author, lecturer, and teacher, earned her Master of Arts degree in African American Studies in 2013 and received a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies in 2006 from Wayne State University. Morgan is due to receive a doctorate in Afro-American Studies and a graduate certificate in Public History-Museum Studies next month from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As a critical race cultural historian, Morgan specializes in American art and visual culture. Her work then examines, critiques, and theorizes the ways in which American artists, art history, and art objects both challenge and reify the systematic mechanisms of anti-Black violence and oppression in the United States. She is the recipient of awards from both the Ford Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, and was recently named the first recipient of The Winston & Carolyn Lowe Curatorial Fellowship for Diversity in the Fine Arts at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
All sessions in the Extra Credit series are free and open to the public. For more information, click here.
Organized by
The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania believes in the power of art and artists to inform and inspire. The ICA is free for all to engage and connect with the art of our time.