Race-ing Whimsy: Black and Asian figures in the Majolica Imaginary
October 21 at 6 pm
Zoom

Majolica’s reputation for ornament, historicism, and lighthearted eclecticism is well understood, and its astonishing breadth of styles and subjects and the explosion of factories that manufactured the popular ceramic ware are thoroughly chronicled in BGC’s exhibition and accompanying catalogue, Majolica Mania. Curator Susan Weber observed that majolica, more than any other ware of the era, makes visible and tangible the interests, desires, and anxieties of nineteenth-century consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. However, the ways in which majolica incorporated ideas of race into its enduring subjects has remained little discussed. With this in mind, Adrienne L. Childs, Sequoia Miller, and Iris Moon will consider issues of race and representation that were embedded in the majolica phantasmagoria of the nineteenth century.

Beautiful and Deadly: The Dark Side of Pigment
October 29 at 12 pm
Zoom

Just in time for Halloween! Join us for a program investigating the dark side of some of the world’s most vibrant pigments. BGC professor Jennifer Mass will explain how lead, uranium, and arsenic are used to create these glorious but deadly hues and discuss their material histories with Dr. Spike Bucklow (University of Cambridge), author of Red: The Art and Science of a Colour.

Histories of Lead Activism in America
November 10 at 6 pm
Zoom

This conversation, organized by Dr. Richard McKinley Mizelle, Jr. (University of Houston), will highlight key moments in the long fight against environmental racism led by Black activists in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Majolica Poetry Reading
November 15 at 6 pm
Zoom

Acclaimed poets Wayne Koestenbaum, Sally Wen Mao, S*an D. Henry Smith, and Stacy Szymaszek share the poems they wrote for our Majolica Mania exhibition and the objects that informed their work.

ASL Access will be provided by ProBono ASL for all events.