Launched in conjunction with the inaugural symposium, The Auburn Forum for Southern Art and Culture at the Jule Museum at Auburn University, the exhibition Arc of Life/Arc of Bones by Walter Hood, creative director and founder of Hood Design Studio and landscape artist based in Oakland, California, is now open.
Arc of Life features oil paintings by MacArthur Fellow Walter Hood. The artist recalls growing up in a then-segregated Charlotte, North Carolina before living abroad and pursuing his education and career in an integrated world. Inspired by the Henry Dumas short story of the same name, the site-specific installation Ark of Bones represents ancestral connections to Black Americans.
Further, Walter Hood will speak at the launch of the aforementioned symposium, along with exhibiting artists Bethany Collins, Lonnie Holley, and Elizabeth M. Webb, and the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, Joy Harjo. Northwestern University’s Janet Dees and Stanford University’s Aleesa Pitcharman Alexander, PhD, are also on the panel. Exploring themes of memory, place and agency, this free forum will take place on February 3, 2024, at The Jule Museum between 1:30-6:30pm CST.
In time, the forum aspires to become an annual tradition, attracting leaders, scholars, artists and the public to engage in critical dialogue about the South’s rich and multifaceted artistic landscape.
