This session will include a fifteen minute presentation overview introducing folks to the oral history project, "Painting a Legacy: Louisville's African American artistic communities, 1950s-1970s". After sharing the conceptual framework behind the project, two-three interviewees will join a thirty-minute discussion reflecting on the impact of this project in Louisville, and their insights on the successes and challenges of preserving historically overlooked moments in art history. The session will include with a public Q&A.
ABSTRACT: "Painting a Legacy" is an ongoing oral history project documenting Louisville's African American artistic communities between 1950-1980. Over the last three years, "Painting a Legacy" has become a scholarly foundation for a curatorial initiative, and one way local stakeholders have relearned about this historically ignored moment in American art. This session will introduce the project before welcoming two-three artists/interviewees for a conversation on the legacies of Louisville's Black modern art: their involvement in the project; their recollections of this significant period in the Ohio River Valley area; and what we all must consider when documenting historically overlooked moments in American (art) history.
