On September 24 and October 15, leading thinkers in the worlds of art, journalism, and academia will be coming to the Tang Teaching Museum for a pair of talks as part of this year’s Accelerator Series. Free and open to the public, the Tang’s Fall Accelerator Series panels will engage guests in important discussions about citizenship and cultural appropriation.
About the Panels
The Accelerator Series features cultural influencers in the diverse areas of art, academia, entertainment, government, journalism, media, politics, and more. Through their work and discussions, the series’ guests encourage others to “[get] comfortable with discomfort” as a way to propel change. Join the conversation! Read on for more on the Tang’s upcoming Accelerator Series events.
Get Up, Stand Up: Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship
Isolde Brielmaier, the Tang’s Curator-at-Large, will moderate a panel on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Joining the discussion will be Los Angeles artist Sam Durant, whose work merges pivotal moments of the past and present, often focusing on periods such as the civil-rights era, the 1968 student riots, and the struggle between Native Americans and white settlers.
Also speaking at the panel will be Skidmore College Assistant Professor of Marketing, Management, and Business Minita Sanghvi. As a civil rights activist, Sanghvi has served on the Human Relations Commission for the city of Greensboro and on the Board of Governors for the Human Rights Campaign. Her current book project, From Susan B Anthony to Hillary Clinton, focuses on gender and political marketing in the United States.
In addition to his work as Assistant Professor of Art at SUNY Purchase, panelist Eric Gottesman is a Creative Capital Artist, a Fulbright Fellow, an Artadia awardee, and a co-founder of For Freedoms, an initiative for art and civic engagement. Through his art, Gottesman confronts the ideas of nationalism, migration, and colonialism.
CULTURE NOW: Appreciate | Appropriate
Brielmaier will moderate a discussion on cultural appropriation in the age of new media, wherein “images, ideas, and sounds are widely accessible.” Present at the October panel will be Jamaican-born artist Renee Cox, whose work in the Tang collection focuses on the politics of the body, particularly the black woman’s body. Through self-portrait, Cox forms arguments on the topics of race, desire, religion, feminism, and visual and cultural aesthetics.
Panelist Matthew Morrison is an assistant professor in the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. His written work has discussed race, music, and appropriation. According to a Tang press release, his latest book project, American Popular Sound: From Blackface to Blacksound, “considers the implications of positing sound and music as major components of identity formations,” especially in constructing race.
Hear from Teen Vogue Digital Fashion Editor Jessica Andrews, who has written some of the magazine’s most viral stories, including a recent article on cultural appropriation, “Heavenly Bodies,” and the 2018 Met Gala. In addition to her work with Teen Vogue, Andrews has contributed to ELLE, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The Daily Beast, and Essence.
The Accelerator Series is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the project Accelerate: Access and Inclusion at the Tang Teaching Museum. A part of Skidmore College, the Tang exhibits work that encourages curiosity and celebrates diversity. Join them from noon to 5 PM on Tuesday through Sunday, or during extended hours until 9 PM on Thursday.
For more information, call (518) 580-8080 or visit tang.skidmore.edu.
