'Art Ventures @ FPAC' Brings Black History Salon to Campus

Zora J Murff

Young Man (talking about his future)

Art Ventures @ FPAC will present Caree Banton for a lecture, "Black Artists and the White Gaze," on Monday, Feb. 24 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center.

Banton is an associate professor of Afro-Caribbean history at the University of Arkansas. Her book, "More Auspicious Shores: Barbadian Migration to Liberia, Blackness, and the Making of the Liberian Republic, 1865–1912" published by Cambridge University Press in 2019, explores the internalization of the white gaze and its political and sociocultural consequences.  

The "Frame of Mind" exhibition currently on display at the Faulkner Center provides context for this Black History Salon. Banton will explore how artists tackle the idea of the white gaze as well address Sonya Renee Taylor's assertion: "Who am I outside what whiteness has assigned me?' is a question that might get us all free." 

"Frame of Mind" celebrates the vast cultural context of Blackness in the diaspora and its plan to survive. The exhibition features Oluwatobi Adewumi, Eric Andre, Morgan Bame, Candace Dolls, Najee Dorsey, Carl Karni-Bain, Sharon Killian, Delita Martin, Zora J. Murff and Joëlle Storet.

"Frame of Mind" is on display until Friday, March 6. The exhibit will be open specially on Saturday, Feb. 22 from 12 to 5 p.m. It is regularly open Monday through Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. and during special evening events.  

About the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center: The newest performing arts center at the University of Arkansas — a renovation of the old Field House — is named the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center, in honor of the couple's major gift to the project. Completed in September 2017, this world-class performance venue is 39,400 square feet, with seating for 587, and a stage that can accommodate as many as 250 performers. The center is the main performance venue for the university's J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Department of Music and hosts guest musical activities for the university and Northwest Arkansas community. 

About Art Ventures NW Arkansas: Art Ventures promotes the visual arts in Northwest Arkansas by actively collaborating with the community, supporting artists working to the highest standards, encouraging education and public engagement in the arts, and providing accessibility to under-represented communities.