21st Century Museums | Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art and High Museum of Art – A Conversation with Koyo Kouoh
Talk
For many countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, cultural production was historically co-opted by the state in anti-colonial struggles and post-colonial nation building, paving the way for decades of tension between private initiatives and government mechanisms. The situation has considerably changed but hardly for the better, with many states neglecting the financial and infrastructural needs of their country’s cultural landscapes. Kouoh will speak to the experience of shaping the in
High Museum of Art, East Dining Room
1280 Peachtree St NE
Atlanta, US 30309
Saturday, April 29, 2023
Join us at the High Museum of Art for a conversation with Koyo Kouoh, resident of Villa Albertine. During her conversation “21st Century Museums: Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art and High Museum of Art,” with High Museum Curator of African Art Lauren Tate Baeza, Kouoh will speak to the experience of shaping the institutional outlook of a museum in South Africa that contributes to redefining the role of art institutions in society.
For many countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, cultural production was historically co-opted by the state in anti-colonial struggles and post-colonial nation building, paving the way for decades of tension between private initiatives and government mechanisms. The situation has considerably changed but hardly for the better, with many states neglecting the financial and infrastructural needs of their country’s cultural landscapes. Kouoh will speak to the experience of shaping the institutional outlook of a museum in South Africa that contributes to redefining the role of art institutions in society.
Click here for more information about this event and to register.
This event is organized by The High Museum of Art in partnership with Villa Albertine. Koyo Kouoh will conduct a research residency that takes the form of encounters and exchanges with artists and culture workers who are cultivating locally-rooted resistance and liberation practices in the American South. She is joined by American journalist Siddhartha Mitter. Learn more about their residency here.
This project by Koyo Kouoh and Siddhartha Mitter is part of a series of three residencies for African curators and museum directors in Atlanta and the Southeast curated in 2023 by Villa Albertine, in partnership with AUC Art Collective at Spelman College, ADAMA and EHESS, and with the support of the Ford Foundation.
The next residents of this program are Malick Ndiaye and Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo in Fall 2023.
Koyo Kouoh is Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, in Cape Town (South Africa). She was the founding director of RAW Material Company, a center for art, knowledge and society in Dakar (Senegal). She has published widely in the field of contemporary art, notably African contemporary art, and has curated many major exhibitions and biennials.
Lauren Tate Baeza is the Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art at the High Museum of Art, overseeing its rich collection of West and Central African art and material culture. She is a contributing editor at ART PAPERS; and speaks, lectures, and consults on a range of cultural and sociopolitical topics related to Africa and the African diaspora. Baeza previously served as Director of Exhibitions at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and curated the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection.
