Join us in conversation with Claudia Zapata, Associate Curator of Latino Art at the Blanton Museum, and curator of Radical Histories: Chicanx Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, opening on February 6, 2025 at the Colby College Museum of Art. Zapata will speak with Julianne Gilland, Deputy Director for Planning and Operations and curatorial lead for this project, about key themes represented throughout the work of more than 40 Chicanx artists in this exhibition. Highlighting select artworks from the show, they will discuss how these artists have used printmaking as a vehicle for advocacy from the labor and protest movements of the 1960s to the migration issues facing communities today, as well as a medium for exploring questions of identity, belonging, and representation in American history.
This program will be held on Zoom and is free and open to all. Use this link to join the program at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 11.
The Art& series brings together visiting artists, scholars, museum staff, and community experts for conversations about exhibitions, collections, and projects at the Colby College Museum of Art and its Lunder Institute for American Art. A mix of in-person, virtual, and hybrid programs, this series is designed for those interested in learning more about art and engaging with the key issues of our time.
About our Featured Guest:
Claudia E. Zapata (they/them) earned their PhD in art history at Southern Methodist University’s RASC/a: Rhetorics of Art, Space, and Culture program. They received their BA and MA in art history from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Maya art from the Classic period (250–900 CE). From 2010-2014, Zapata was the curator of exhibitions and programs at the Mexic-Arte Museum. They held the position of curatorial assistant of Latinx art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum from 2018–2022. Zapata was part of the first cohort of Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellows at UCLA, administered by the Chicano Research Center. From 2022-2023, they researched Chicanx and Latine/x creators in Web3. Currently, they are the Blanton Museum of Art’s first associate curator of Latino art.