Registration is NOW OPEN!
Join us October 1–3, 2026, for Aesthetic Inheritance: Art, Archive, and African American Life, a dynamic symposium bringing together scholars, artists, and cultural workers to explore African American art, archives, memory, and historical documentation.
The symposium will begin with an opening plenary at the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum on October 1, followed by two days of programming at Bowie State University on October 2 and 3.
Presented in partnership by Bowie State University, the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture, and the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum, this gathering offers an opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations about art, history, memory, and the archives that help tell our stories.
Thank you to our generous sponsors, Terra Foundation for American Art and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and to everyone who submitted proposals for consideration.
DAY ONE
Opening Plenary | Black Archival Imaginaries: How Black Women Artists Envision New Narrative Possibilities within the American Archive
Thu., Oct. 1, 6:00-8:00p
LOCATION: Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum, 84 Franklin Street, Annapolis, MD 21401
The symposium opens with a rich exploration into the expansive, archival-based artistic practices of three DMV artists: Alanna Fields, Khaleelah Harris, and Martha Jackson Jarvis.
Moderated by Leslie Rose, this artist talk will center the dynamic role of artists in the preservation, activation, interrogation, and reimagining of African American historical narratives within national, community, and familial archives.
Through a discussion of their work on view in “She Speaks: Black Women Artists and the Power of Historical Memory,” this group dialogue will include themes around ancestral memory and legacy, spirituality, American identity, and liberation.
The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A.
DAY TWO
Paint Me a Road Out of Here: Screening and Discussion
Fri., Oct 2, 6:00-9:00pm
LOCATION: Dionne Warwick Theater, Bowie State University Fine and Performing Arts Center,14000 Jericho Park Road, Bowie, MD 20715
Paint Me a Road Out of Here traces the remarkable journey of Faith Ringgold’s 1971 mural For the Women’s House, created for incarcerated women at Rikers Island, and its decades-long path toward preservation and public visibility.
The documentary explores Black feminist art, incarceration, institutional stewardship, and the power of art to imagine freedom beyond confinement.
Join us in a post-show discussion between contemporary artist Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, Professor Tewodross M Williams, and Dr. Carmen Walker.
DAY THREE
Aesthetic Inheritance: Art, Archive, and African American Life
Sat., Oct. 3, 9:00a-5:30pm
LOCATION: Bowie State University Fine and Performing Arts Center, 14000 Jericho Park Road, Bowie, MD 20715
The culminating day of Aesthetic Inheritance: Art, Archive, and African American Life features a full schedule of scholarly and artistic presentations, film screenings, conversations across disciplines, and a keynote by LaToya Ruby Frazier.
From Black cultural spaces and HBCUs to music, film, visual art and archives of the African Diaspora, Day Three asks: What do we inherit, what do we preserve, and what do we create anew?