Shaping Black Modernisms: Art, Culture, and Community in California

Topics in this conference address Black artists in the Bay Area—centered on the life and work of Sargent Claude Johnson—and in Southern California, especially the Black artistic community that developed in Pasadena, as well as California’s key position along the Pacific Rim. With talks by academics and artists, performances of music from the archives by Black composers Harold Bruce Forsythe and William Grant Still, and tours of the exhibitions, this two-day conference celebrates Black creativity in California’s past, present, and future.

Conference Schedule

Friday, Feb. 23

8:30 a.m. | Registration and Coffee

9 a.m. | Welcome

• Susan Juster (W.M. Keck Foundation Director of Research, The Huntington)

9:15 a.m. | Remarks

• Robert C. Davidson Jr. (Huntington Board of Governors and Board Chair, Smithsonian American Art Museum)
• Dennis Carr (Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art, The Huntington)

9:30 a.m. | Keynote

• Bridget R. Cooks (Professor of Art History and African American Studies, UC Irvine), “Sargent Johnson: Black Catalyst”

10:30 a.m. | Panel 1: Sargent Claude Johnson: Art and Life

• Moderator: Dennis Carr (Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art, The Huntington)
• Jacqueline Francis (California College of the Arts)
• John Bowles (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

Noon | Lunch

1 p.m. | Panel 2: Black Composers in the Archives: William Grant Still and Harold Bruce Forsythe, with a Performance by the Pasadena City College Music Ensemble