Second-year student Zora Williams is using her voice to bring more mental health and nutrition programming to San Diego Mesa College. Williams was elected president of the college’s Associated Students (AS) for the 2024-2025 academic year and serves as the college’s student representative on the San Diego Community College District Board of Trustees.
Sometimes, you hear a story that makes you want to know more. Kevin Gonzalez has such a story. The last time this story was updated, San Diego Mesa College student Kevin Gonzalez was a 15 year-old heading off to Massachusetts to complete his high school education. In the ensuing years, he has travelled to the other side of the world, built houses, but remained in close contact with his Mesa College professors and connections he made while on campus.
The San Diego Community College District has appointed four new student trustees for the upcoming academic year. Dalia Ramirez (San Diego City College), Zora Williams (San Diego Mesa College), Hailey Hua (San Diego Miramar College), and Haydee Zuniga (San Diego College of Continuing Education), will be sworn in during the June 20 SDCCD Board of Trustees meeting.
February 27, 2017
An exhibit of work from African American artists and their connection to African Art opened Feb. 9 during a reception and artist lecture as part of the Black History Month activities at San Diego Mesa College.
Pieces from Mesa’s African Art Collection will be displayed along with work from three African American artists – San Diego based Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Los Angeles and Oakland based Andrea Chung, and New York based Robert Pruitt.
“Chung, Hinkle and Pruitt create work that represents the Black body and inscribes it with meaning through the use of historical images, references to African art and symbolism,” said Alessandra Moctezuma, Gallery Director at Mesa College. “Their work establishes a dialogue that both deconstructs and demystifies gender and race.”
Developed as a way of making connections for students between African artifacts, the history of slavery and artists working in various mediums today, the exhibit is helping students at Mesa to see African and African American history through art.
“Students feel like they don’t have a ‘history’ that goes beyond slavery, they feel like there is this disconnect – they ask where are the cultural traditions that we know are thousands of years old,” said Denise Rogers, Manager of the African Art Collection and professor of Art History at Mesa College. “Working with Alessandra and Andrea, we were able to bring together artists who also recognize that these traditions, cultural practices and ways of being that are already there.”
The African Art Collection was started in the late 1970s by Dr. Barbara Blackman and has since “grown to nearly 1,000 pieces from throughout the continent” of African. Though some of the pieces were produced to sell to tourists, many of the pieces in the collection were used by various peoples in Africa, according to Rogers.
“The artifacts in the African Art collection, some dating as far back as the 16th century, enter into conversation with the works of these contemporary artists and in doing so, they reassert their cultural and artistic influence on African American art,” Moctezuma said. “Together, this visual ensemble from the past and the present both illuminates and offers insights into the African American experience.”
The exhibit will be on display at the Mesa College Art Gallery until March 1. The gallery is open Mondays through Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursdays from 1 to 8 p.m. Pieces from the African Art Collection can be seen year-round in the glass gallery exhibit in the LRC.
For more information regarding this exhibit and the African Art Collection at San Diego Mesa College, contact Denise Rogers derogers@sdccd.edu or (619) 388-2371.
Tags: Black History Month, African Art, Black Studies
Jennifer Nichols Kearns
Director of Communications
jnkearns@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2759
Denise Rogers
Manager - African Art Collection, Professor - Art History
derogers@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2371
Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. Every year, the San Diego Mesa College Library joins in the celebration by creating and curating a Black History Month Library Guide – filled with resources of what is available not only at the San Diego Mesa College library, but through other community resources as well.
San Diego, CA. – On Thursday, February 9 at 4:00 p.m., the San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery will hold a Reception to present a stirring presentation of African art to celebrate Black History Month. Thoughtfully curated by Dr. Denise Rogers, Africa in Context features visually stunning, historically significant objects from the San Diego Mesa College World Art Permanent Collection. Many of the objects and pieces of art have not been displayed publicly in over six years. The World Cultures Art Collection, which includes over 1,200 pieces from around the world, offers a glimpse into other cultures and civilizations – right on the Mesa College campus. Each artifact in the collection tells a powerful story of world history, cultural values, and artistic expression.
Denise Rogers is a professor of art history at San Diego Mesa College, manages the college’s World Art permanent collection, and is the curator of “Africa in Context,” currently on display through Feb. 23 at the college in celebration of Black History Month. By Lisa Deaderick | February 4, 2023 As a young girl growing up in southeastern San Diego’s Shelltown neighborhood, Denise Rogers spent time flipping through the pages of Time and Life magazines her mother kept on their coffee table. At the time, she just enjoyed the pictures from galleries in New York, Paris, and Italy. Later, after an introductory art course prompted her to change her major from fashion design to art history, she found a career path that allowed her to pair her love of both history and art.
