Anti-Racist Resources for Fine and Performing Arts

This is a crowd-sourced assemblage of materials relating to Confederate and other racist monuments to white supremacy; the history and theory of these monuments and monuments in general; and monument struggles worldwide. It was inspired by the resistance to fascism demonstrated at Charlottesville, Va. and Durham, NC in August 2017. It recognizes that resistance to such monuments to white supremacy already had a long history by 1865 in the genocide of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The resistance to the form of white supremacy symbolized by the Confederacy began with African Americans, abolitionists and feminists at the time of their construction. This syllabus hopes only to add to that tradition until all the monuments have fallen. We posted a call online and have added everything that came in. There’s much more out there, we know.

Recent discourses across disciplines have been concerned with the questions of if and how we can decolonize. Carolyn Dean points out the problematics of using the term “art” (2006), and
scholars such as Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang have pushed us to consider the material imperatives of decolonization, rather than simply the metaphorical (2012).

A (more) decolonized art history may be possible, if we are able to rethink both what we teach and how we teach it. How might this manifest through re-reading and reassessing the traditional canon? How might it manifest through challenging the
traditional lecture format, inviting students to relate to each other and their own histories more closely?

We come together in this open workshop format to discuss how we are working towards decolonizing our art history classrooms.
This workshop unites educators committed to such a material reconfiguration of art history, as well as the potential impacts of such a reconfiguration beyond the classroom

From Introduction: For many of us working within (and alongside) the discipline of art history, these calls have asked us to reckon with what we do as teachers, scholars and curators. In order to continue this conversation, we have asked a range of art historians, curators and artists to respond to a series of questions that consider some of the recent calls to ‘decolonize art history’. The responses vary in format, length and focus. We offered some guidelines regarding length but otherwise were open to the ways in which the questions were addressed. Continuing the vision for Art History set out by Price in her inaugural editorial in February 2018, the following seeks to give space to some of the conversations that many of us are having within and between our institutions. The questionnaire format indicates that there is not one way to ‘decolonize art history’, but rather it is a debate that the editorial board of Art History, alongside many of our colleagues in the discipline, feels needs public discussion. We publish the questions and a selection of the responses below.

What is the historical specificity of current calls to decolonize art history? How are they different from previous challenges to the discipline (such as postcolonialism, feminism, queer studies, Marxism)?

What is your understanding of decolonizing art history now? What does a decolonized art history look like? How should it be written/practised?

How might the decolonization of art history impact upon your own area of research/practice? What would be produced from it? Might anything have to be jettisoned?

Where should decolonization in relation to art history happen? What strategies might different spaces for decolonization demand?

Excerpt: As an anti-racist artist, you can disrupt racism by drawing upon a history of racist artifacts and images, whether intended to injure or intentionally forgotten, thereby increasing their accessibility through contemporary works of art intended to inform anew. Likewise, as an anti-racist art teacher or museum educator, you can decrease the accessibility of misinforming, Eurocentric, or “color-blind” resources in your classrooms and collections.

In this paper, the author discusses legacies of white supremacy in the
United States of America and the effects on art education. Through
personal reflection and resourcing the ongoing work to right the
misinformation acquired through inherently white-privileged educational
experiences, the author suggests the possibility of actively anti-racist arts
pedagogies and pedagogies of justice in the arts.
KEYWORDS: Culturally sustaining pedagogies, anti-racist arts pedagogy,
equity and justice

Full text of the book is available at this link.

Thank you School of Art students for being a part of today’s incredible push for systemic racism change and police brutality reform for Black people sparked by the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor – the latest victims of 400 years of Black injustice. Your generation is driving this reckoning through street protests, online activism and informing discussion with your family and friends. You have been ahead of the curve in this conversation and the SF State School of Art has been slow to catch up. This is our reckoning too. The School of Art has had action items in discussion, but we realize we need to act more quickly and out of respect to you we must be transparent with our stand and plans for equity in your education and decolonization of the art world.