30th Annual Helen Clark Berlind Symposium

The 30th Annual Helen Clark Berlind Symposium is held in conjunction with the 110th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Storytellers: Faith Ringgold + Aminah Robinson. Friends and family of Helen Clark Berlind ’58 established the Berlind Symposium in 1991 to honor her memory. The event has expanded the educational impact of the Annual every year since, hosting scholars and artists to discuss issues relevant to each Exhibition. 

The 30th Annual Helen Clark Berlind Symposium is supported by the Helen Clark Berlind Symposium Fund.

• Events will be happening throughout the day on Saturday, February 26, 2022
• The events are free and registration is not required.
• Masks required for in-person attendees.

Film Screening: Black Art: In the Absence of Light (2021) 

11 am – 12:30 pm, Saturday, February 26, 2022

Inspired by the late David Driskell’s landmark 1976 exhibition, “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” this documentary offers an illuminating introduction to the work of some of the foremost Black visual artists working today. Featured artists include, Theaster Gates, Kerry James Marshall, Faith Ringgold, Amy Sherald and Carrie Mae Weems. Directed by Sam Pollard (85 min.)

Lesley Shipley, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Art History will introduce the film and lead a post-screening discussion.

Mikaela Sardo Lamarche is the Co-Director and Curator at American Contemporary Art Gallery (ACA Gallery) in New York City and curator for Storytellers: Faith Ringgold + Aminah Robinson. Her curatorial credits include Francis Luis Mora (1874-1940): a Legacy Reconsidered, Richard Mayhew: Transcendence, Bruce High Quality Foundation: The End of Western Art, Monica Serra: Forgetting and Remembering, and John Baeder. 

Lesley Shipley, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Art History at Randolph College specializing in modern and contemporary art, with an emphasis on feminist and critical race art history and the history of art activism. Her publications include “New York in/and African American Art History” (The Routledge Companion to African American Art History) and, as co-editor, the forthcoming volume, The Routledge Companion to Art and Activism in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2022). Shipley earned a B.A. in art history from the University of Maryland, College Park, an M.F.A. in painting from American University, and an M.A. and PhD. in the history of art from Bryn Mawr College.

Michelle Wallace is a leading black feminist writer, cultural critic, and daughter of artist Faith Ringgold. She is the author of numerous books, including Black Macho and The Myth of the Superwoman, a pioneering critique of the misogyny of the Black Power movement and the effects of racism and sexism on black women and Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory widely regarded as a landmark in the history of black feminism. Wallace has written extensively on Ringgold’s work, including American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold’s Paintings of the 1960s. She is Professor Emeritus of English (2017), Women’s Studies, and Film Studies at the City College of New York and the City University of NY Graduate Center and Founder and Director of The Faith Ringgold Society, LLC, the mission of which is to publish writings on the work and career of the artist Faith Ringgold. Wallace earned a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies at New York University