Julie Crooks: Curating Global Africa and the Diaspora: Photographic Collections, Curatorial Practice

Join Julie Crooks, associate curator of photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), in conversation with Casey Riley, curator and head of the Department of Photography and New Media, as they discuss the complex histories of African and diasporic photographic representation and the contemporary artists who investigate those histories. As a scholar of West African and black vernacular photography, Crooks will discuss Mia’s forthcoming photography exhibition, “Vision 2020,” featuring the work of Omar Viktor Diop, Samuel Fosso, and Zanele Muholi. She will also reflect upon the challenges and rewards of transforming an encyclopedic museum to reflect the diverse communities it serves. Through the landmark acquisition of nearly 4,000 photographs of the Caribbean, the AGO has significantly expanded its potential for the scholarly research of black photographic history, as well as its related programming and community engagement activities.

Julie Crooks received her PhD in the Department of History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Crooks has taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, the University of Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier University, and York University, Toronto. Her most recent exhibition, “Femmes Noires” (2019), was the first to present the work of Mickalene Thomas in Canada.

$10, $5 My Mia members; free to members of the Photography & New Media, Contemporary Art, and African Art Affinity Groups. Click here to reserve tickets.