Concealed to Revealed: Confronting Racist Imagery in Museum Collections

On November 12th, 2024, the Art & Museum Studies Program in partnership with Tudor Place hosted Concealed to Revealed: Confronting Racist Imagery in Museum Collection. This panel discussion was held in Lauinger Library and preceded by a viewing of objects with racist imagery from the collections of Georgetown University, Tudor Place, and the private collection of LaNitra M. Berger.

The panelists discussed how scholars and museum professionals approach these objects and how examining this imagery can address historical injustices and foster dialogues about race, representation, and prejudice, both past and present.

You can view a recording of the program on the YouTube page for Tudor Place below.

Moderator:

Melanie A. Adams, Roger Ferguson, and Annette Nazareth, Director of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum. She has more than 25 years of community engagement experience in museums and higher education.

Panelists:

LaNitra M. Berger, Associate Professor of History & Art History, and Director of African and African American Studies at George Mason University. As an art historian, her research focuses on the intersections of art and social activism in the Black and Jewish diasporas.
Ianna Recco, Curator and Art Historian specializing in art history of the transatlantic slave trade and settler colonialism of the 18th century.
Shana Klein, Associate Professor of Art History at Kent State University. She is the author of The Fruits of Empire: Art, Food, and the Politics of Race in the Age of American Expansion.