John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art 2020, A Tribute to David C. Driskell: Part 3, Torchbearer of a Legacy

Description

Valerie Cassel Oliver, Sydney and Frances Lewis
Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and David C. Driskell Prize recipient (2011)

In this presentation recorded on
August 26, 2020, Valerie Cassel Oliver traces David C. Driskell?s career from the mid-1950s at
Howard University?arguably the birthplace of African American art history?through
to his influence on contemporary artists and scholars who are ensuring that
this legacy continues. A Howard University alumna and David C. Driskell Prize recipient,
Cassel Oliver elucidates the particulars of Driskell?s education and work,
while demonstrating his role as a nurturer, standard-bearer, and torchbearer of
knowledge. She concludes with a discussion of the deep
responsibility of being custodians
of the living history of African American art. The fourth
annual John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art was held in partnership with
the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of
African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland,
College Park, and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. This program was made
possible by a grant from the Alice L. Walton Foundation.