Just Art? Equity, Immigration and Art in the Global City

This course focuses on relations between art, immigration and equity. Through several case studies, we will learn to think critically about how aesthetics and politics work together. In addition to studying particular works of art, we will travel to several foundations and institutions to learn about their strategies for fostering equity and the arts. How do art, activism and racial justice connect in performances aimed at changing ideas? How do major arts institutions address questions of equity and difference? We will discuss how art can function as a form of aesthetic knowledge in the service of justice. In doing so, we will grapple with the role of the creative arts in mitigating social change and study artists who have sought to intervene in the restrictive covenants of racial, gender and other segregationist or national orders. Our case studies will shift across media, subjects, objects and temporalities. From artists in New York responding to the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to the radical work of Yayoi Kusama¿s 1960s performances, to a plays about immigration such as Lynn Nottage¿s Intimate Apparel and Lin Manuel Miranda¿s Hamilton¿the latter a show that exemplifies how art, activism and racial justice come together--the cross-cast musical gave paid opportunities and leading parts to a full cast of performers of color while also recasting the history of immigration in the United States and produced a new form of hip hop. We will read work by James Baldwin and more! We will visit the Tenement Museum as well as the Schomburg museum and archive and meet with current curators and arts professionals from across the city.