In Conversation: Lowery Stokes Sims and Lauren Haynes

Join us for a conversation between esteemed curators Lowery Stokes Sims and Lauren Haynes. Sims and Haynes consider Benny Andrews’ use of materiality in portraiture, and offer a unique glimpse into Benny Andrews as a colleague and peer amidst the historical and political backdrop of the 1960s and 1970s.

This fall, Ruth Arts is pleased to inaugurate its speaker series program. Each month from September through December, artists, curators, researchers, and other cultural practitioners will join in conversation to discuss topic(s) inspired by the legacy of artist, educator, and activist Benny Andrews (1930–2006). These dialogues are presented in conjunction with Trouble, a multifaceted exhibition that combines Andrews’ extensive archive with a selection of his paintings and works on paper to reflect the fullness of the artist’s practice, life, and advocacy, and the ways they are intertwined.

Space is limited, RSVP required.

Speakers

Lowery Stokes Sims

Lowery Stokes Sims served on the education and curatorial staff of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1972-99), as executive director and president The Studio Museum in Harlem (2000-2007) and retired as Curator Emerita from the Museum of Art and Design (2007-2015). Over the last few years, Sims has been an independent curator and consultant for the Caribbean Cultural Center, the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Craft Contemporary, Grounds for Sculpture, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Center for Art, Design; Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Sims received her Ph.D. in art history in 1995 from the Graduate School of the City University of New York. She holds a B.A. cum laude in art history from Queens College of the City University of New York, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a M.A. in art history from Johns Hopkins University. She was Visiting Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (2018-2020) and the 2021-22 Kress-Beinecke Professor at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Lauren Haynes

Lauren Haynes is Head Curator, Governors Island Arts and Vice President for Arts and Culture at the Trust for Governors Island in New York City. Haynes is a specialist in contemporary art by artists of African Descent and has spent her almost two-decade career at art institutions across the US, including the Queens Museum; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; and the Studio Museum in Harlem. She has written and lectured extensively on contemporary art and contemporary artists at all stages of their careers. Haynes’s recent curatorial projects include Lyle Ashton Harris: Our first and last love (co-curator, 2023-24); The Power of Portraiture: Recent Acquisitions (2022); Beyond the Surface: Mixed Media and Textile Works from the Collection (2022); Reckoning and Resilience: North Carolina Art Now (co-curator, 2022); Kenny Rivero: The Floor is Crooked (2021); Crystal Bridges at 10 (2021); Sarah Cain: In Nature (2021); State of the Art 2020 (co-curator, 2020); and The Beyond: Georgia O’Keeffe and Contemporary Art (co-curator, 2018). Haynes serves on the board for the AAMC Foundation as VP of Fundraising and on the visiting committee for the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College. Haynes was a 2018 Center for Curatorial Leadership fellow and a recipient of a 2020 ArtTable New Leadership Award. In 2023, President Joe Biden appointed Haynes to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, on which she currently serves.