The Crown(s): A Demonstration
Through May 1, 2016
Academic West
Bucknell’s Art and Art History Department is hosting its first Nesbitt Artist in Residence, and the Samek is collaborating with the department to host an exhibition of artist’s work on campus. The Nesbitt Artist Residency Program in partnership with Bucknell University Department of Art and Art History as well as the Samek Art Museum provides time, space, and exhibition opportunity to visual artists working in any media. From March 21 – April 21, artist Shani Peters will be making art and working with students here at Bucknell. This residency made possible by John ’64 and Sandra ’64 Nesbitt.
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Artist Statement
The African’s experience in the Americas has been grounded in brutality and trauma. Through eras of forced enslavement, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, both clearly stated and veiled every-day racism, and now the most commonly perceived police abuse of power, Black people have exercised unimaginable degrees of determination to simply survive and persevere. The work in this exhibition is the most recent exploration in the theme of imagining crowns as symbols for Self-Determination and the complexity of the experience of the African people following the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade that my series The Crown has reflected on for the past few years. These new works begin to explore what Self-Determination means specifically for Black Americans situating both historical and contemporary images of Black Americans engaged in focused political protest within the visual narrative of The Crown project.
James Baldwin famously stated, “Our crown has already been bought and paid for, all we have to do is wear it.” These works illustrate the price that was and continues to be paid.
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Artist Talk and Reception
April 13, 2016, 5pm
Academic West Room 108
