Art in Conversation: Environment / Identity / Memory

Concluding Thoughts with Margi Conrad, Director of Curatorial Affairs.

Art historian Erika Doss presents on artists’ use of memory throughout history, sparking a larger conversation with artists Sandow Birk and Michael Waugh about the role memory plays in art and how it is often at odds with social reality.

American identity has been idealized as a homogenous “melting pot” of cultures. Art historian Claudia Mesch explores how cultural exchange has informed artmaking in the Americas. A discussion with artists Jeffrey Gibson and Ghada Amer, follows.

Art historian Laura Turner Igoe presents scholarship toward understanding how artists in the 19th and early 20th centuries presented environmental issues. Igoe's presentation is followed by a conversation with artists Nathalie Miebach and Pam Longobardi.

The recent Crystal Bridges acquisition We the People (black version) poses a fundamental question: How does an artwork serve as a call to action to challenge societal power structures? Artist Nari Ward discusses this with Curator Lauren Haynes.

Crystal Bridges founder and board chair Alice Walton and founding board member John Wilmerding discuss artworks in the Museum collection they consider transformative, either on a personal basis or for society at large.