Recentering the Periphery: An Inclusive Future of Art History

This year’s symposium, Recentering the Periphery: An Inclusive Future of Art History, focuses on art history outside the scope of the traditionally defined curriculum or that reevaluates understanding of the canon and its role in art history. Amid calls for the field of art history to dismantle and decolonize the established canon, a simultaneous movement has arisen to make the discipline more engaged in arts and culture communities and in the pursuit of social justice. Now is the time to reevaluate and redefine the scope of art history, incorporating lost or previously silenced narratives and voices to build a more equitable future for the discipline. Scholars, museums, and arts and culture communities can reshape these narratives and recenter subjects long treated as peripheral. This year’s symposium is generously supported through a co-sponsorship grant from the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities.

For the first time, the Cleveland Symposium will be partnering with FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art (July 16 through October 2, 2022) to offer a unique two-day event for scholars and community members to participate in these conversations. Assembly for the Arts joins FRONT to make the event an opportunity to bring Northeast Ohio museums and communities together.

Dates: September 16 (at the Cleveland Museum of Art) and September 17 (CWRU campus)