“Art Galleries at Black Studies Spotlight” on The Gutterblood Talk Show

Host Sono Osato speaks with AGBS Founding Executive Director Dr. Cherise Smith and AGBS Curator Dr. Phillip Townsend.

In 2014, the Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS)—comprised of Christian-Green Gallery and Idea Lab--was founded as a distinct unit of Black Studies by Founding Executive Director Dr. Cherise Smith. It became the sole on-campus entity dedicated to showcasing the art of Africa and the African Diaspora at The University of Texas at Austin.

Since then, in addition to growing its extensive collection, AGBS has cultivated and presented a spectacularly tenacious and robust body of work including a richly diverse and incisive array of cutting-edge exhibitions that span the local, national and international spectrum, seminars, workshops, residencies, panel discussions, artist talks, publications, performances, the superlative multi-year symposium series Why Black Museums?, and off-campus outreach.

Through its ten years of programming AGBS has profoundly nourished the minds and imaginations of multitudes across an expanding network of intersections and become a leading bellwether - in concert with the George Washington Carver Museum - in the elevation of Black art and scholarship in the Austin community and beyond. And it does it all with a small but intrepid and indefategable team.

Join us for an evening of learning more about this trailblazing and invaluable institution and it's driving force.

This conversation was live-streamed on December 3, 2024.