The BAMPFA exhibition A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration (through September 22, 2024) explores the enduring impressions of the Great Migration as seen through the eyes and work of twelve contemporary artists. In this conversation moderated by Anthony Graham, BAMPFA senior curator, the show's co-curators reflect upon the exhibition, from its planning and development to the impact of its ongoing national tour.

Between 1915 and 1970, in the wake of racial violence and pervasive inequalities, nearly half of the country’s African American population left their homes in the rural South. Many migrated to cities like Chicago, Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, and Houston, while others relocated within the South. The Great Migration transformed the economic, cultural, social, political, and ecological makeup of the United States. 

A Movement in Every Direction examines how reverberations from the Great Migration continue to affect the lives of many Black Americans. The show features newly commissioned works by Akea Brionne, Mark Bradford, Zoë Charlton, Larry W. Cook, Torkwase Dyson, Theaster Gates Jr., Allison Janae Hamilton, Leslie Hewitt, Steffani Jemison, Robert Pruitt, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, and Carrie Mae Weems.

Participants:

Jessica Bell Brown is curator and department head for contemporary art at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Recent projects include Stephanie Syjuco: Vanishing Point (Overlay), and Thaddeus Mosley: Forest.

Ryan N. Dennis is senior curator and director of public initiatives at the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, and former chief curator and artistic director of the Center for Art and Public Exchange at the Mississippi Museum of Art. 

Carrie Mae Weems lives and works in Syracuse, New York, where she is artist-in-residence at Syracuse University. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2013.

Torkwase Dyson, based in New York, is a painter whose work addresses the continuity of ecology, infrastructure, and architecture. She was elected to the board of the Architectural League of New York as vice president of visual arts in 2016.

Attendance at the roundtable is included with museum admission. See BAMPFA for more information. 

Presented in partnership with BAMPFA.