Release Date: March 1, 2018

John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration Explores American Storytelling with World-Renowned Artists and Engaging Free Programs, March 23, 25

Jacob Lawrence's Sidewalk Drawings (1943) is the inspiration for a large-scale, community art-making activity on Sunday, March 25.

Washington, DC—This spring welcomes the second annual John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration. Named for the Gallery's retired curator, deputy director, trustee, and chairman, as well as one of the nation's leading scholars in American art, the symposium and weekend celebration will explore the expanding and ever-changing stories of American art and the Gallery's dynamic role in sharing those stories. The symposium and community celebration are made possible by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation.

All programs are free and open to the public. The symposium will take place on Friday, March 23 from 10:30–5:00 in the East Building Auditorium and the community celebration will take place on Sunday, March 25 from 11:00–6:00 across the entire East Building.

The symposium will bring together noted artists Janine Antoni, Byron Kim, and Glenn Ligon, who will discuss Bodies of Work, the East Building installation featuring Kim's Synecdoche (1991-present), Ligon's Self-Portrait (VIII) and Self-Portrait (X) (1996), and Antoni's Lick and Lather, (1993). Among other subjects to be discussed at the symposium are the complete reinstallation of a West Building gallery with portraits of women in white, featuring Gilbert Stuart's Catherine Brass Yates (Mrs. Richard Yates) (1793/1794), one of the first objects to enter the Gallery's collection in 1941; Hiram Powers' The Greek Slave (1846); George Bellows's Both Members of This Club (1909); Archibald Motley's Portrait of My Grandmother (1922), presented by artist and scholar David C. Driskell; and a major gift of Dorothea Lange's evocative photographs of American migrant workers taken in the 1930s and 1940s.

DC- based performance artist Holly Bass will participate both in the symposium and community celebration. On March 23, Bass will discuss the importance of audience engagement as it relates to her current practice and the larger national conversation on equity, diversity, and inclusion. Beyond the Friday symposium, she will invite visitors to create and share their personal stories as part of a collective American narrative during the community celebration on March 25. Specifically, Bass will present a new community-driven performance piece by leading visitors in a story chorus with live musical accompaniment and a literary score composed of personal vignettes from local residents.

Additionally, visitors will have the opportunity at the weekend celebration to draw and write together on a large-scale paper path inspired by Jacob Lawrence's painting Sidewalk Drawings (1943), on view in the current exhibition Outliers and American Vanguard Art. Local educators and artists, including painter David Ibata and playwright Mary Hall Surface, will demonstrate creative storytelling based on their personal art forms and inspired by works of art in the East Building. Gallery educators will offer engaging pop-up talks on various works of art centered on the theme of storytelling. Leading up to and throughout the weekend, all are encouraged to share their American story via the hashtag #AmericanStoriesNGA and #myngadc. 

Press Contact:
Christina Brown, (202) 842-6598 or [email protected]