Ithaca College

Risham Majeed (Assistant Professor, Art History) has published a critical dialogue with Blake Bradford on two important sites, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. and the Equal Justice Initiative’s Memorial and Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. Majeed conceived of the project to analyze these high-profile and long-awaited institutions as a comparative critique that contextualizes black history as American history. 

The piece deals with issues of commemoration, omission, reproduction, and representation in these vital spaces, and serves as a proxy visit to them in the time of Covid-19. It is an image rich article featuring photography by the author on site in Washington, Montgomery, Venice, Brooklyn, London, and Charleston. Many of the topics addressed transcend museum history and speak to the intense tension generated in recent weeks around the U.S., which has reached a crisis point in the wake of the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis.  

This dialogue appears in the May 22 issue of Art Journal Open and was featured in Artnet this week as one of two articles “from around the art web,” which will give it a wide readership.

Art Journal: artjournal.collegeart.org/

Artnet:  https://news.artnet.com/opinion/empty-heroics-1874166