University News

WIU's Morgan to Speak at Figge

October 22, 2014

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MACOMB, IL – Professor Jo-Ann Morgan, of Western Illinois University's Departments of African American Studies and Art History, will speak at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6.

Morgan's presentation, "Evolving Concepts of Identity in the Art and Visual Culture of Black Power and the Black Arts Movement," accompanies the current Figge exhibition, "African American Art Since 1950: Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center."

Morgan will discuss artistic groups of the late 1960s, as the Black Freedom Struggle transitioned from Civil Rights Movement into a cry for Black Power and the visual arts became a forum for self-expression and exhibiting a new consciousness about what it meant historically and globally to be an African American. Using work on display in the exhibition, Morgan said she will examine "the ongoing quest for self-definition and identity."

Morgan is the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin as Visual Culture," winner of the 2008 Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Nonfiction. She is currently working on a book about the Black Power Movement in visual culture.

The exhibition will be available to view before and after the talk and will remain on exhibit through Jan. 4.

The Figge Art Museum is located at 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport, IA.
For more information or directions, contact the museum by phone: (563) 326-7804 or email: figgeartmuseum.org/Home.aspx.

Posted By: Kolette Herndon (WIUNews@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing