Mar 17 2021
Museum Current: “The Power of Place: Public Art and Indigenous Representations,” by Jami Powell

Museum Current: “The Power of Place: Public Art and Indigenous Representations,” by Jami Powell

Presented by McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College at McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College

As part of its ongoing Museum Current lecture series, which focuses on recent scholarship, discoveries, and trends in Museum Studies, the McMullen Museum invites associate curator of Native American art at Dartmouth University, Jami Powell for a virtual lecture. In recent years, controversies over the removal of monuments and murals have taken place throughout the nation. As a growing number of museums and academic institutions grapple with foundational legacies of colonialism and 19th century scientific racism while also promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, public art does not always reflect the shifts in community values. Focusing on recent removals of public art depicting Native North Americans, as well as the interventions contemporary Indigenous artists are making, this talk will explore some of the complexity, nuance, and contradictions inherent within these conversations.

Free; open to Boston College faculty, staff, students, and McMullen members only. Register for this lecture at https://tinyurl.com/25qyv37h.

Not a Member? Join today! Members receive numerous perks, including free admission to museums across the country, discounts on catalogues, a free annual gift, and exclusive invitations to crash courses and other events. All proceeds go to supporting exhibitions and programming for our audiences. Find out more at https://www.bc.edu/sites/artmuseum/join/.

Jami Powell is the Hood’s first associate curator of Native American art and was recently appointed as a lecturer in Native American Studies at Dartmouth. Powell is a citizen of the Osage Nation and has a PhD in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to working at the Hood, she was a faculty lecturer at Tufts University. She has also worked as a research assistant at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, was a Mellon Fellow at the Peabody Essex Museum, and has conducted research projects at the Field Museum of Natural History and the Denver Art Museum. Powell’s research examines the representations of Indigenous peoples in museums as well as the interventions contemporary Indigenous artists make through creative acts of self-representation. Powell is currently working on a book manuscript titled Stitching an Osage Future: Aesthetic Resistance and Self-Representation. She has also published articles in Museum Anthropology, Panorama, Museum Management and Curatorship, and is an editorial advisor for First American Art Magazine. Powell has served on curatorial advisory boards for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. She is a recipient of the 2020 New Leadership Award from ArtTable, the foremost professional organization dedicated to advancing the leadership of women in the visual arts.

Admission Info

Free; open to Boston College faculty, staff, students, and McMullen members only. Register for this lecture at https://tinyurl.com/25qyv37h.

Not a Member? Join today! Members receive numerous perks, including free admission to museums across the country, discounts on catalogues, a free annual gift, and exclusive invitations to crash courses and other events. All proceeds go to supporting exhibitions and programming for our audiences. Find out more at https://www.bc.edu/sites/artmuseum/join/.

Dates & Times

2021/03/17 - 2021/03/17

Location Info

McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College

2101 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02135