This event provides artists, community archivists and historians with information on how to protect their creative legacy in this day and age.
Koret Auditorium
Main Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Contact Telephone
415-557-4400
aac@sfpl.orgThe presentations are contextualized by the history of cultural appropriation of Black creative production and will help participants understand how the resources represented on the panel can help to prevent such egregious violations in the future.
Featuring Tracy Brown, director, Bridges Diasporic Arts, event organizer; Duane Deterville, SFSU professor & the event facilitator; Janet Hicks, vice president and director of licensing, Artists Rights Society; and Cassidy Cole of Artwork Archive.
Tracy Brown, the event organizer, is an independent curator, artivist, sculptor, installation artist, photographer, public presenter, guest lecturer and Capacity Building Consultant. Tracy is also the founder and director of Bridges Diasporic Arts. As a result of her work she was able to compel the world’s largest purchasing body, the General Services Administration (GSA), to remove the rubber Black man from their catalog. Tracy also made significant contributions to the efforts to eradicate the availability of flavored tobacco. Today, she teaches independent workshops to resilient populations. Tracy serves as a Workshop Leader with the Center for Artistic Activism and as an independent creative consultant.
Kwadwo Duane Deterville, the event’s facilitator, is an artist, writer and scholar of visual culture. A former Contra-Mestre of the African Brazilian martial art known as Capoeira, his primary area of study is in African and African Diasporic cultural expression. Deterville’s independent field research includes trips to Haiti and Brazil to research sacred ground drawings and altars. He has lectured at museums, colleges and universities about visual culture as it relates to the African and African Diasporic experience. As the Co-founder of Sankofa Cultural Institute Kwadwo produced three symposiums on the history and aesthetics of Jazz. He co-authored the book titled Black Artists in Oakland which was published by Arcadia in 2007 and was an alumni columnist for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s online publication called “Open Space.” His visual art practice is focused on drawings that address the intersection between symbols and rituals in African Diasporic religions. His artwork has been shown both domestically and abroad. As a teaching artist, he designed lesson plans and curricula to teach art to youth incarcerated in San Francisco. Deterville received his BFA and an MA in Visual and Critical Studies (2009) from the California College of the Arts located in San Francisco California. In 2015 he received the Visual and Critical Studies department’s alumni award and was the second scholar to receive the honor. Deterville is currently lecturing faculty for San Francisco State’s Africana Studies Department.
Cassidy Cole is the product education lead at Artwork Archive. She is dedicated to helping artists boost productivity, gain visibility, preserve their artistic legacies and craft sustainable careers. As an exhibiting artist and documentary filmmaker based in LA, Cassidy couples her firsthand experience with product expertise. She intimately understands the challenges facing today’s creatives and translates that insight into impactful training.
Janet Hicks is Vice President and Director of Licensing at Artist Rights Society, and serves on the Executive Committee of the visual arts arm of CISAC, known as CIAGP, the International Council of Creators of Graphic, Plastic, and Photographic Arts. She is also the ARS representative for IFFRO, the International Federation of Reproductive Rights Organization. At ARS she handles advertising, film and television uses as well as major museum exhibits and international and membership relations. She has a MA in Art History from the University of Oregon and is also a curator and advocate for emerging contemporary and outsider artists at her art gallery, One Mile Gallery.
Andrea Sexton Dumas is the co-founder of Digital Roots Studio, a family-owned and operated digitization house in Albany, Ca. As a digital preservationist and storyteller, she deeply values intergenerational exchange, instilled in her by her grandmother and niece. In addition, Andrea is an end-of-life doula and grief tender, hosting the podcast Recipes for Grief.