Chenoweth Lecture: Lauren Haynes

The Birmingham Museum of Art welcomes Lauren Haynes, Executive Director of Atlanta Contemporary, as the speaker for its annual Chenoweth Lecture. During her talk, Haynes will explore the ecosystems that support Black American artists working in the American South. Drawing on her experience as a curator and arts leader, Haynes will consider how museums and cultural institutions can create space for artists and communities whose stories have too often been treated as peripheral to broader narratives of American art.

At the heart of the conversation is a question of permanence: How do we move beyond seeing Black Southern artists as an “asterisk” to the story of American art and instead recognize their work, histories, and communities as central to it? Haynes will consider what it takes to build lasting structures for these conversations, ensuring that they are not simply introduced, but sustained, embedded, and understood as essential to how we define American art.

During her career, Haynes has curated and co-curated dozens of exhibitions, including major solo presentations of Stanley Whitney and Alma Thomas at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and she coordinated the first United States presentation of Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. An expert in contemporary art, Haynes has long championed artist residencies and commissioned projects. She has held positions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the Queens Museum, and Governors Island. 

This program is generously sponsored by Dr. Arthur I. Chenoweth as a memorial to his brother and parents. The purpose of the lectures is to encourage international understanding through the presentation of a variety of subjects by specialists in their fields.

5–6pm Reception
6–7pm Lecture
5–8pm Open galleries

Image caption: Chakaia Booker (born 1953), It’s Like This, 2001, rubber tires, screws, and wood, 30 × 28 × 15 in. (76.2 × 71.1 × 38.1 cm); Gift of Ellen and Fred Elsas, 2003.47