Julie L. McGee, associate professor of Africana studies and art history, and director, Interdisciplinary Humanities Research Center at the University of Delaware; author of David C. Driskell: Artist and Scholar; and curator of David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History (High Museum of Art, February 6–May 9, 2021; Portland Museum of Art, June 19–September 12, 2021; and The Phillips Collection, October 16, 2021–January 9, 2022)

For this keynote address recorded on August 21, 2020, Julie L. McGee reflects upon the artist’s studio as a place of professional mark-making. As Driskell once noted, “The studio is a place of joy, comfort, reassurance, as well as a place to meditate and pray. It is my sacred grove.” Centering Driskell’s impact as an artist, educator, and curator, McGee observes, ensures that we see American art more comprehensively, and that we more insistently mark the contributions of historically Black colleges and universities to American art history. The fourth annual John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art was held in partnership with the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. This program was made possible by a grant from the Alice L. Walton Foundation