From The National Gallery of Art:

Artists and American Communities, Then and Now

Gordon Parks Photography, Image Credit: The National Gallery of Art

Join us for thought provoking dialogues with artists and scholars related to the exhibition, Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940–1950. Conversations will explore some of the inspiring cooperative relationships between artists and American communities. Presentation topics will range from the history of government support for artists and community centers during the 1930s and 1940s, to the impact of community programs on Parks’s development as a photographer, to examples of how artists are working today. Check out our featured speakers on our website. The exhibition, which will be open through February 18, revisits the meteoric development of Parks as a photographer, his social documentary, industrial, fashion, and film work, and the meaning of this work in picturing and representing the African diaspora.

This ticket does not guarantee a seat. Auditorium seating is limited and available on a first-come, first seated basis. Click here to RSVP and download a free ticket beginning January 11, 2019.

Date & Time

Made possible by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation.

Images: Gordon Parks, (detail) View of passenger aboard a Staten Island ferry, New York City. August 1948, gelatin silver print, Standard Oil (New Jersey) Collection, Photographic Archives, University of Louisville. Courtesy of and © The Gordon Parks Foundation; Gordon Parks, Self-Portrait, 1941, gelatin silver print, Private Collection. Courtesy of and © The Gordon Parks Foundation; Gordon Parks, Washington, D.C. Government charwoman, July 1942, gelatin silver print, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Photograph; Gordon Parks, Trapped in abandoned building by a rival gang on street, Red Jackson ponders his next move, 1948, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection). Courtesy of and © The Gordon Parks Foundation