Richard Kennedy

The Radical Practice of Black Curation: A Symposium, a two-day gathering held at Princeton University and Park Avenue Armory, assembles a wide-ranging group of curators and art professionals of color—including Thelma Golden (The Studio Museum in Harlem), Adrienne Edwards (Whitney Museum of American Art), and Bonaventure Ndikung (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin)—to engage the past, present, and future of Black curation in the contemporary art world.

The past two decades have witnessed the success of a wide range of Black artists, whose work has been celebrated through their recognition by prestigious awards, at influential festivals, and through exhibitions and acquisitions at leading art institutions across the globe. But these successes have been enabled by a parallel development within art institutions themselves: the ascent of a visionary group of Black curators and curators of color who have supplanted the role of traditional curatorial gatekeepers and expanded the capacity of arts institutions to recognize the work of an increasingly diverse group of artists.

As a capstone of this event, multidisciplinary artist Richard Kennedy presents a musical encapsulation of the African diaspora in the Armory’s historic rooms. Titled Guttural (Conducted Contact), this new work opens a portal of participatory gathering as truth emerges through song, dance, and a series of wordless conversations.