1992 CONFERENCE, PANELS, WORKSHOPS

STRATEGIES OF DISCOVERY, AFFIRMATION & EMPOWERMENT

July,1992

Director: Nkiru Nzegwa, Professor of Philosophy and Art History , State University of New York at Binghampton,  conceived and developed the following panel topics to focus on issues of uppermost concern in the lives of the international African artistic community. 

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These panels shared individual experiences, stimulated further discussions surrounding issues pertinent to the collective, and initiated dialogue which was later continued in other venues. Each theme addresses some aspect of the creative force as it relates to preservation, philosophy, empowerment, economics, politics and /or social change in the life of the artist of African descent.

Aesthetics Of The African World

This panel discussed the nature of the concepts that define an African-based aesthetics. This may be achieved either by reference to indigenous African artistic heritages, or through identifying recurring aesthetic impulses in the arts of various African communities on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Moderator: Russel Gordon (artist, Montreal)

Panel: Samella Lewis (painter, publisher, African-American and African-Brazilian art historian, California), Mary Jane C, Hewitt (Caribbean and African-American are historian, California), Rowland Abiodun (Yoruba art historian, Massachusetts), Chukwuma Azuonye (writer, folklorist, Pennsylvania)

African Legacy In 20th Century Art And World Civilization

African artistic works - both visual and musical - have been appropriated, and have shaped 20th century art and aesthetic. It is important to understand the ways in which the arts of African world have enriched world culture.

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Moderator: Maurice Bryan (gallery owner, curator and researcher on cross-cultural art symbolism, Ottawa)

Panel: Francoise Pfaff (writer, film critic, Washington DC), Terry Jenoure (musician/composer, Massachusetts), Jeff Donaldson (artists, art historian, Washington, DC),  Ousmane Sembene (film director and writer, Senegal)

African American Aesthetics

This panel addressed the two general questions of "what is African America aesthetics" and "what do they say"? Since the questions open up numerous lines of investigations, approaches that yield historical, thematic and textual insight were welcomed.

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Moderator: Willis Bing Davis (artist, art historian, educator, Ohio)

Panel:  Cornel West (writer on cultural politics of difference, theologian, Princeton University), Barry Gaither (curator, writer, Afro-American Museum, Boston), Floyd Coleman (artist, African-American art historian, Washington),  Fred Wilson: (photographer curator, Bronx Museum of Art, New York) Tony Martin (author, editor, Harlem Renaissance historian, Massachutsetts)

African Canadian Aesthetics

Examined the role of art as a political and cultural tool of empowerment in the Canadian experience. In defining African-Canadian aesthetics, it will be instructive to look at the impact of the national policy of Multiculturalism on African-Canadian art.

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Moderator: Francine Gobia (artist, administrator, Edmonton), Jim Adams (painter, instructor, Vancouver), George Elliott Clarke (poet, Ottawa), Henry Bishops (curator, Halifax), 

Panel:  

Métissage And Caribbean Creole Constructs

This panel unraveled the multiple cultural heritages of the Caribbean world and discussed the unique character of the art forms that define and shape Caribbean aesthetics.

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Moderator: Austin Clarke (writer, novelist, Toronto)

Panel:  Horace Campbell (Pan African scholar and activist, New York), Leroy Clark (artist, painter, Trinidad), Carlyle Matthew (painter, sculptor, Vancouver)

Art In Cultural And National Identity

In exploring the sorts of cultural issues that relate to art in various national contexts, the issue of access and exclusion was  examined: How does the politics of funding work to exclude/include peoples of African descent from the art establishment; how does it affect the form and mode of artistic representation? What should be the role of museums in breaching this barrier?

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Moderator: Carolyn Maitland (artist, NCA President, New York)

Panel:  Kinshasha Conwill (director, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York), Emmanuel Arinze (member UNESCO panel of museums, Nigeria), Mairuth Sarsfield (writer, United Nations liaison, Ottawa)

Icons And Images Of African Heritage In Art

In this panel symposium format,  artists discussed their art and historians discussed the work of artists who critically use the icons and images of African heritage in their works.

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Moderator: Napoleon Jones-Henderson (fiber and installation artist, Massachusetts)

Panel: Khadejha McCall (artist, Montreal), Kwaw Ansah (film director, Ghana), 

Feminine Perspectives In Art

The panel explored issues of gender and cultural in art. Since the panelist's work in relation to, or through, feminine analysis, the discussion focused on the strategies surrounding their art production.

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Moderator: June-Clark Greenberg (printmaker, Toronto)

Panel: Valerie Maynard (sculptor, printmaker, Maine), Chinwe Uwatse (painter, art administrator, Nigeria), Buseje Bailey (visual artist, Montreal), Mikelle S. Omari-Obayemi (artist, Afro-American & Afro-Brazilian art historian, Arizona)

Inspiration, Spirituality and Creativity

An exploration of the deeper meaning of creativity as it relates to art. The panel focus was on powers, symbolism and metaphors. Artists discussed the dominant impulses that have influenced their art and their creativity

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Moderator: Rosalind Jeffries (sociologist, art historian)

Panel: Floyd Sandiford (artists, sculptor, Montreal), Varnette Honeywood (artist, California), Houston Conwill, Estella Conwill Mojozo & Joseph DePace (artists: installation and performance art New York)

Bridging Continents Embracing Cultures

The focus on this panel was on the modalities for establishing mutually beneficial professional and international linkages with artists and scholars of African descent. The objective was to explore the various modes of cooperation, and to examine ways of forging international alliances with artists.

Moderator: Koko Amarteifo (Canada Council, Ottawa)
Panel: Carroll Parrot Blue  (filmmaker, San Diego), Evangeline Montgomery (artist/curator, arts coordinator, Washington), Eric Robertson (curator, African Art gallery owner, New York), Stan Douglas (installation artist, Vancouver)

Faces And Phases: Yoruba Group & Individual Identity 

The panel examined issues of material culture, identity, power and empowerment among Africans of Yoruba extraction in Africa and the Diaspora - questions of individual, pan-Yoruba and sub-ethnic identities from sociological, philosophical and historical perspectives. Panelists also inquired into facial and body marks for personal aesthetic and group identity.

Moderator: A.G. Adebayo (historian, Toronto),

Olufemi Vaughan (sociologist, New York), Femi Taiwo (philosopher, Illinois).

Lesbian And Gay Aesthetics

The panel explored art as a political tool, a communication device and as a record of history in this movement. The ways in which heterosexism and racism deny access to the creation and legacy of an African gay and lesbian aesthete were examined.

Moderator:  Dionne Brand (writer, Toronto), Faith Nolan (musician, song writer, Toronto), Robert Reid-Phair (film and video producer, California), Cheryl Duyne (videographer, Pennsylvania), Marva Pitchford-Jolly (artist, curator, teacher, Illinois).

The PEN Canada Panel

The panel address critical issues facing writers, publishers both nationally and internationally: Questions such as access to publishing, distribution and promotion and development of wider audience for writers from diverse racial and ethnic groups.

Moderator: Cecil Foster (writer, journalist, Toronto)
Panel: Jack Mapanje (writer, Malawi/England), Marth Kumsa: (writer, Ethiopia), Dany Laferriere (writer, Montreal), Ademola Olugebfola (artist, publisher, New York)

The Business of Art

The panel focused on legal and business issues as they relate to the art profession: Topics such as international border crossing and customs, income tax, marketing, and maintaining your own business as it pertains to artist.

Moderator: John Harris (director, Harris Institute for the Arts, Canada/US)
Panel: David R. Paget (president International Arts Management, Canada), Brant Frayne (president Pramantha Pictures Inc., Canada), Bob Roper (vice president, Anthem Entertainment Group, US), Paul Sanderson (LLB attorney, Co-founder ALAS, Canada), Sandra Brooks (director, franchising, Manhattan York Financial, London), David Caudeiron (president, Black Music Assoc. of Canada & Cheers Music Pool, Canada)

Super Sessions & Workshops: How To Present Your Art Professionally

The Computer In Contemporary African Art - In Focus: Artist Acha Debela cibachrome prints of works created with the technologically innovative modes of digitizing and programming in creating art.

Session Leader:  Bamidele Agbasegbe Demerson

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Meaning and Photographic Techniques

Instructor: Michael Chambers, Artist Photographer - Toronto CAN

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Development of Photographic Based Community Resources

Instructor: Sharon Farmer, Artist/Photographer - Washington DC

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Photography Workshop Seminar "the black way of seeing" in a medium that traditionally has not featured Blacks artists.  Workshop Leader/Facilitator: Armet Francis, Artist Photographer

Late Night Sessions

Late Night Sessions

Westbury Hotel - Buckingham Room 

July 9, 1992  - 11:00 pm - 2:00 am

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Jazzy, free form, improv, jam sessions, a performance, short video, film, poetry., a reading -  a space for the artist to demonstrate their licks - a catalyst for new works in progress:

Reading: Nise Malange/Poet; Video Screening: Ian D. Farquharson/Director; Perormance Donald Carr/Dancer, Actor; Discussion:Culture & Form Roxana Farrell and Bushra Junaid/Architects; Performance Anilia Soyinka/Dub Poet; Performance Clyde Morgan/Dancer