Kim Bobier

Art and Design History in NYC
Special Topic: Holding Space—Black Art and Agency

With a spotlight on New York, this course attends to Black artistic activity and presence in the United States. Our content is thematically organized and unfolds in a loosely chronological fashion. Looking as far back as 1619 when the first enslaved Africans arrived, we will study how art and visual culture more broadly have reflected and affected the racial dynamics of various local and national spaces. We will consider different types of physical spaces such as physical land, urban sites, monuments, public artwork, and art institutions. We will also examine artistic and social movements, which have made needed space for the experiences and expressions of people of African descent in US/ New York history as well as in contemporary consciousness.