The Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism announces a series of talks corresponding to World on Fire: 1968/Now, a year-long examination of the 50th anniversary of that momentous year in art, design, and culture
In the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto Student Uprisings, a group of South African artists, writers, musicians, and playwrights established a thriving arts group across the border in Botswana. Medu Art Ensemble ultimately defined how the arts could bolster the ANC’s fights against apartheid through “armed propaganda.” This talk will look at the practical and ideological foundations of Medu and focus on the international success of its graphic arts unit.
Elizabeth Morton is Associate Professor of Art History and Department Chair of Art at Wabash College, where she teaches courses in museum studies and 20th and 21st century and non-western art history and theory. Her publications and research focus primarily on modern art workshops in Africa and American collectors of African art. Morton has many years of curatorial experience, including dozens of exhibitions at the National Museum and Art Gallery in Botswana, where she worked for four years through the Swedish International Development Authority. Most recently, she curated Dimensions of Power, the reinstallation of African Art at the Snite Museum of the University of Notre Dame. Morton’s curatorial projects also include the 2012 reinstallation of the Eiteljorg Suite of African and Oceanic Art and Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria (2011-2012) at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.
This event is supported by the department of Art History, Theory and Criticism, and co-organized by the faculty team of World on Fire: 1968/Now.
