Exhibiting Art from the French & Creole Speaking Caribbean & Amazonia: Sociological, Historical, Art Historical, and Museological Perspectives
Date and Time
Location
The symposium gathers an interdisciplinary group of scholars, thinkers, and museum professionals to investigate the history, status, and future of exhibiting art from the French-and Creole/Kreyol-speaking Caribbean and Amazonia from plural sociological, historical, art historical, and museological perspectives.
It is organized by Audrey Célestine (NYU), Cécile Fromont (Harvard) and Claire Tancons (EXTEMPORA) in conjunction with the Alain Locke Gallery’s upcoming exhibition curated by Claire Tancons by invitation of Cécile Fromont "Van Lévé: Sovereign Visions of the Creole and Maroon Americas and Amazonia (September 22, 2026-June 5, 2027)".
This event is presented in collaboration with Alain Locke Gallery of African & African American Art at the Hutchins Center
Agenda
1 to 1:30pm | Welcome & Introduction
Audrey Célestine, Cécile Fromont, Claire Tancons
1:30 to 3:30pm | A Vast Caribbean
Afro-Asia Tremblement: Wifredo Lam, Malaury Eloi Paisley, Kelly Sinnapah Mary, Tao Leigh Goffe (Hunter College, City University of New York)
Oral Traditions/Contemporary Art: New Epistemologies in the, Caribbean and Indian Ocean, Usha Reena Rungoo (Harvard University)
Exhibitions and Schools of Modern Art from Fort-de-France to Abidjan, 1940s-1980s, Joshua I. Cohen (Stanford University)
3:45 to 5:45pm | France /Antilles: The Politics of Caribbean Art
Sowing Wind, Reaping Whirlwind - or How to Institute Art as a French Caribbeanist?, Claire Tancons (Independent Curator and Scholar)
Salon des Refusés: Art Criticism without History in the French-Speaking Caribbean, Erica Moiah James (University of Miami)
White Panic or the Myth of the Poisoner, Michael Roch (Writer)
8:45am to 10:45am | Lost & Found: Histories of Caribbean Art & Artists
Colonial Entanglements between Haiti/Saint-Domingue and the Paris Art World, Meredith Martin (New York University)
Afro-Indigenous Constellations in the Guianas, Justin Brown (Boston College)
The “Lost” Art of French Caribbean Modernists (1920-1960): Approaches to Excavation and Display, Denise Murrell (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
11:00am to 12:15pm | Poetics of Knowledge
At the Edges of Paradise: Urban Imaginaries of the Post-Colonial Caribbean City, Cédrine Scheidig (Artist)
Sanza, Banza, Lambi: Reactivating the Material Archive of Caribbean Music, Alexandre Girard-Muscagorry (Institut national d’histoire de l’art & EHESS, Paris)
1:30pm to 3:30pm | Public Facing
From Curiosity to Art: Six Paintings’ Journey from the Caribbean to Cambridge and around Harvard Yard, Marina Kliger (Independent Curator/Harvard Art Museum)
How to Document and Promote Caribbean Art Today? Building a Stronger Artistic and Cultural Future Inspired by Alain Locke’s New Negro Progressive Theories, Mickaël B. Caruge (Artist and Independent Scholar)
Exhibiting Race, Apprehending Race: Museums and Their Publics in 21st-Century France, Audrey Célestine (New York University)