Description:

The Panafrica Days Symposium was organized on the occasion of the exhibition Project A Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, on view until March 30, 2025.

The symposium is presented as part of Panafrica Days, a four-day series of activities jointly organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, the Black Arts Consortium at Northwestern University, Chicago Humanities, and the Neubauer Collegium at the University of Chicago.

Wednesday, March 5

10:00 am – 5:30 pm

Art Institute of Chicago

Fullerton Hall

111 S. Michigan Ave.

DIALOGUES ON PANAFRICA 

10:10 am

Introductory Remarks

Antawan I. Byrd

Assistant Professor of Art History, Northwestern University; Associate Curator, Photography and Media, Art Institute of Chicago

10:25 am

Keynote Address

Koyo Kouoh

Executive Director and Chief Curator, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town; Artistic Director of the forthcoming 2026 Venice Biennial

Q&A Discussion Moderated by Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona 

11:20 am

Panel: On the Circulation and Transmission of Africa/Diasporic Aesthetic Practices

Huey Copeland

Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, University of Pittsburgh

Krista Thompson

Mary Jane Crowe Professor of Art History, Northwestern University

Ebony Patterson

Artist

Kodwo Eshun

Artist

Moderated by Dieter Roelstraete (Curator, Neubauer Collegium)

1:40 pm

Keynote Address

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Artist

Q&A Discussion Moderated by Ivy Wilson, (Associate Professor of English, Northwestern University; Director, Black Arts Consortium)

2:30 pm

Panel: Panafrica’s Future Conversations

Hélio Menezes

Artistic Director, Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil

Marilyn Nance

Photographer

Serubiri Moses

Visiting Faculty, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College

Moderated by Matthew Witkovsky (Richard and Ellen Sandor Chair and Curator of Photography and Media, Art Institute of Chicago)

4:00 pm

Keynote Address

Louis Chude-Sokei

Professor of English, Wein Chair and Director of African American and Black Diaspora Studies, Boston University

5:00 pm

Closing Remarks

Adom Getachew

Professor of Political Science and Race, Diaspora & Indigeneity, University of Chicago