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Fisk University Galleries
Report from Director of Fisk University Galleries
Since my tenure as the Director of the Fisk University Galleries began in 2015, our primary goals have been to: 1. 1) develop new partnerships and programs to facilitate access and training for the next generation of artists, arts leaders and art advocates, and 2. 2) continue our efforts to advance in the preservation, protection, and promotion of our collections. We are actively pursuing these goals and have made major strides in doing so. With support from the Fisk University administration, faculty and students, community, and Friends of the Gallery, over the last 4 years we have opened 18 exhibitions, recruited and trained over 60 Gallery Ambassadors, welcomed over 10,000 visitors from across the world annually, and developed and sustained partnerships with museums, academic and community organizations. Our team has also given over 50 talks and participated in panels and conversations in the United States and abroad. Finally, Fisk University Galleries has been fortunate to secure funding from the Tennessee Arts Commission, Walton Family Foundation, Ford Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation, Sotheby's, and in partnership with the Frist Art Museum-- we received funding from National Endowment for the Arts. Needless to say, we have been busy, but there is always more to do to support the Fisk University's mission. In 2018, Fisk University unveiled its 2018- 2022 strategic plan. The plan includes seven guiding principles: 1) Transformational Student Experience; 2) Academic Excellence; 3) Thrive; 4) Diversity and Social Justice; 5) Community Partnerships; 6) Continuous Improvement; and 7) Globalization. In an effort to further align with the strategic plan, we launched the Fisk University Museum Leadership Program (FMLP) with support from the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative funded by the Walton Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The goal of FMLP is to train, develop, and diversify the professionals within the museum field. In May our 1st cohort of scholars that included 10 students from 5 HBCUS completed 4 modules: Conservation, Curatorial and Collection management, Museum Education and Engagement, and Development. Members from our 1st cohort has entered their fellowship year and, we are currently in the mist of training our 2nd cohort. The FMLP has enabled them to work with many museum professionals across the country. In conjunction with the HBCU Alliance of Museums and Galleries our partners include, Winterthur/University of Delaware, Lunder Conservation Center, Yale University’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, Princeton University Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and the Frist Art Museum, among others. In our commitment in raising the visibility of our exhibitions and programs-- we have not only enhanced our sustaining partnerships, and we have developed new ones. This Spring we opened Terry Adkins: Our Sons and Daughters Ever on the Altar, co-curated and co-presented by Fisk University Galleries and the Frist Art Museum. With the generous support from the NEA. The exhibition includes sculptures, prints, installations, and video by the multidisciplinary and multimedia artist and musician, on view in the Frist’s Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery from February 20 through May 31, and the Carl Van Vechten Gallery at Fisk from February 20 through September 12. Presented forty-five years after Adkins’ graduation from Fisk, the exhibition pays special attention to the influence that his time in Nashville had on the late internationally acclaimed artist. We are currently developing an exhibition in partnership with Cheekwood Estate and Gardens and Vanderbilt University—centered around Aaron Douglas and William Edmondson, scheduled to open in 2021. We are also organizing African Modernism in America, 1947-1967, with the support from the Andy Warhol Foundation, and an accommodation from Sotheby's Prize. The exhibition is scheduled to travel in partnership with the American Federation of the Arts-- set to open in Fall 2022. Stay tuned... there is more to come. —Jamaal B. Sheats, MFA
Meet Fisk University Galleries curatorialfellow
Jordan Wright
Supported by Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative funded by the Walton Family Foundation and the Ford Family Foundation: Jordan Wright is our Fisk University Galleries Curatorial Fellow. He is a graduate of Winston Salem State University with a BA in Art & Design. Jordan completed the inaugural year of the Fisk Museum Leadership Program, which included an overview and intensive at Fisk University and the following modules: an art conservation intensive at the University of Delaware and the Winterthur Museum, an art conservation intensive at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Lunder Conservation Center, a curatorial intensive at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, a museum education intensive at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and a museum development intensive at Fisk University in partnership with the Tennessee Arts Commission, MPYER Marketing and the National Museum of African American Music. In Summer 2019, Jordan received additional training in art conservation at Yale University during the Student and Mentors Institute for Technical Art History. Over the course of his fellowship at Fisk, Jordan has gained experience in curatorial and research, collections management, community engagement and museum education.
fisk university research journal
Perrin Lathrop was the Fisk University Galleries, Andy Warhol Foundation Curatorial Fellow for the 2018/2019 academic year. As a Fellow, she pursued research in Nashville, Washington, DC and Lagos, Nigeria for the exhibition African Modernism in America, 1947-1967, opening in Nashville in Fall 2022. One of the most important and comprehensive collections of African modernism in the United States resides at Fisk University, donated by the Harmon Foundation in 1967. Drawn from this collection, African Modernism in America, 1947-1967 will feature artists who produced art that responded to interlocking histories of civil rights, decolonization and the Cold War. The exhibition will expand understandings of modernism and African art by re-introducing American audiences to influential modern African artists who defied the narrative of African art as isolated to a ‘primitive’ past with their inventive and irrefutably contemporary work. In addition to support from the Warhol Foundation, the exhibition received a commendation from the Sotheby’s Prize in 2019. The show will travel nationally in 2023 through a partnership with the American Federation of Arts. Perrin first traveled to Fisk to conduct research for her PhD dissertation in 2016. She is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University, where she will defend her dissertation “A ‘Sublime Art’: Akinola Lasekan and Colonial Modernism in Nigeria” in 2020. The project positions Nigerian artist Akinola Lasekan as a colonial modernist and examines his career’s intersection with the intellectual histories of nationalism, pan-Africanism and modernism. Fisk owns an important collection of Lasekan’s work, including his remarkable history painting Ogedengbe of Ilesha in the Kiriji War (c. 1958-59). Perrin has returned to Fisk multiple times since 2016 to prepare for the exhibition African Modernism in America, which she is co-curating with Fisk University Galleries Director Jamaal Sheats and former Associate Curator Nikoo Paydar. The exhibition African Modernism in America, 1947-1967 will also include a newly commissioned contemporary art installation by the Lagos, Nigeria-based artist Ndidi Dike. Perrin and the artist began discussing the commission in Lagos in July 2018. Following in the steps of the Harmon Foundation and former Fisk University professor David Driskell’s mission to facilitate relationships between African artists and American audiences, Dike will travel to the United States in 2020 with the support of the Warhol Foundation to conduct research in the Harmon Foundation and Fisk University archives for her commission, entitled “The Politics of Selection.” perrin lathrop
Fisk University Galleries (cont.)
(Above) Akinola Lasekan, Ogendengbe of Ilesha in the Kiriji War, oil on canvas, ca. 1958-9. 27 x 34.75 in. Gift of the Harmon Foundation. Fisk University Galleries, 1991.1121. (below) Perrin Lathrop examining illustrations by the Nigerian modernist D.L.K. Nnachy at Fisk during her 2016 visit to Nashville.
The artist will focus on the role of women in the development of modernism. Dike’s resulting immersive multi-media installation will examine the multiplicity of viewpoints, biases, prejudices, allegiances and omissions found in the archive to highlight the power in retelling histories of modernism today. While an artist-in-residence, Ndidi Dike will also engage with students and the campus community.
The Office of Academic Affairs highlights from
Faculty feature
Dr. Jocelyn Imani
Dr. Jocelyn Imani joined the Office of Academic Affairs as the Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies and Academic Operations. She earned a BA in History from Fisk University and a PhD in African Diaspora and Public History from Howard University. Her research explores student activism and cultural production during the Black Power Era. An experienced public historian with over a decade of experience, she has worked with cultural and educational institutions including the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Park Service, Howard University, Washington Adventist University, and Coppin State University. As Assistant Dean she plans to assist with the continued enhancement of the School for Graduate Studies in the areas of marketing, infrastructure, and daily operations. She also supports the Provost as a project manager for the Office of Academic Affairs. Her primary function is support the implementation of initiatives identified in the strategic plan including the Social Justice Institute and the SACSCOC reaccreditation process.
