Homecoming exhibited at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art!

What an incredible honor to have Lava Thomas: Homecoming be the first exhibition to open at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art after the museum’s two year closure due to COVID. The exhibition included three bodies of work: Mugshot Portraits: Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (2018-2021), Decatur (2022) and Looking Back and Seeing Now (2015-2021). Having the work exhibited at such a historic institution was a heartfelt and profound experience.

The exhibition’s opening featured a series of programs, including a lunch discussion and tour of the exhibition with Spelman’s Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective. In attendance were Liz Andrews, Ph.D., Executive Director, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art; Bridget R. Cooks, Ph.D., Curator of Lava Thomas: Homecoming and Professor of African American Studies and Art History at U.C. Irvine; Cheryl Finley, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of History of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University, Inaugural Director of the Atlanta University Center Collective for the Study of Art History and Curatorial Studies, Professor of Art & Visual Culture at Spelman College; Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Ph.D., Founding Director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center, Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies at Spelman College; Cynthia Neal Spence, Ph.D., Co-chair of Sociology and Anthropology, Social Justice Fellows Program Director, UNCF/Mellon Programs Director, Associate Professor of Sociology & Anthropology at Spelman College; Visiting Faculty Evelynn M. Hammonds, Ph.D., Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, Professor of African and African American Studies, Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, T. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard. Inaugural Audre Lorde Visiting Professor of Queer Studies at Spelman College; and Karen Comer Lowe Curator-in-Residence at Spelman College.

Endless thanks to Bridget, Liz, the entire Spelman College Museum of Fine Art Team, Spelman’s Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective, and the many supporters of the exhibition. Heartfelt gratitude to the descendants of the women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott for your presence and warmth.