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October 18, 2018


San Diego Mesa Art Gallery in Conversation with Aruna D’Souza

By Angela Garcia, Office of Communications

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This past week, San Diego Mesa Art Gallery invited author and arts critic Aruna D'Souza to discuss her book, Whitewalling: Art, Race & Protest in 3 Acts. As students filled the room, D'Souza was joined by UC San Diego Professor Nicole Miller to unpack some of the pertinent issues surrounding race and representation, and how they affect art culture.

In D'Souza's book, she discusses three specific incidents where artists misused, misrepresented or underrepresented the experiences of black people. This prompted an honest consideration of artistic freedom versus the responsibility artists, art curators, and museums have to be culturally sensitive to experiences, particularly racial injustices toward people of color in America.

D'Souza and Miller also spoke about the way museums shape our views of others and the world, and how this has an effect on artists' choice to contribute and the way audiences' engage with art.

The talk concluded with a question and answer segment where students were given the opportunity to weigh in on the discussion.

To learn more about future events, visit the Mesa Art Gallery Future Exhibitions page, or contact Gallery Director Alessandra Moctezuma at 619-388-2829 or amoctezu@sdccd.edu

Tags: Mesa Art Gallery, UC San Diego