Blog.
Mapping the World of Art: Interlude — The Politics of Sight
We assume seeing is objective—but it isn’t. This interlude explores how perception is shaped, and why the way we look at art is never neutral.
10 Things Lovers of Art Should Know
A practical guide to collecting art in Northeast Louisiana—why regional work matters, what makes a piece last, and how to build a collection that reflects both place and perspective.
Mapping the World of Art: Part III — Art and Power
What if art wasn’t just something to look at—but something designed to control how the world is understood? In ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, images followed strict rules. What emerged was a system—one that organized experience and sanctioned power.
Mapping the World of Art: Part II — Before "Art"
Step into a cave 36,000 years ago—long before the word “art” existed. This post explores how the earliest human markings, from Africa to Europe to Southeast Asia, reveal a shared impulse that would eventually become art history.
Mapping the World of Art: Part I — You Are Here
Imagine the entire history of art as a space so full you can’t move through it. This introduction reframes art history as the process that clears the chaos—and gives you a map to understand where you are and where you can go.
Yellow Pigments: A Story of Trade, Toxins, and Toil
Yellow is one of the most contradictory colors in the history of art—at once valued and hazardous, shaped by geology, trade, and labor. From earth pigments and toxic minerals to global trade networks and Delta folk traditions, this essay traces how yellow came to carry meaning across materials, places, and time.
How a Tiny Insect Colored an Empire?
From a cactus in Mexico to the robes of empire, the story of carmine reveals how a single color shaped global trade, artistic production, and cultural meaning.
Kinds of Blue. Miles Apart
From the rare ultramarine of Renaissance Europe to the indigo of the Delta, this post explores how two blues—miles apart—carry histories of labor, value, and movement. Through stone and plant, trade and tradition, these materials reveal who had access, who labored, and how color preserves cultural memory across time.
Art of War
A response to the fascist bombing of a Basque civilian town, one monumental work became the most politically powerful artwork of the twentieth century. From Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit to James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time to Gordon Parks raising his camera like a rifle, Black artists have outlasted every regime that feared them. That tradition is not behind us. It is upon us.
History Can Be Nuts: The Truth About George Washington Carver
For generations, classrooms taught that George Washington Carver invented the peanut. The real story is far more powerful. At Tuskegee Institute, Carver helped Southern farmers rebuild exhausted soil through crop rotation, agricultural research, and the mobile Jesup Agricultural Wagon.
Monroe’s Huey P. Newton and Black History Month 2026
On the final day of Black History Month 2026, we reflect on Monroe native Huey P. Newton and the enduring legacy of the Black Panther Party. Their survival programs, political vision, and community organizing offer a blueprint for understanding the present moment — and a reminder that Black history is still being written.
5 Ways African American Creativity Can Shape the Future of AI Art
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the art world — but who will shape AI? This post explores five practical ways African American creativity can influence the future of AI art, from preserving community histories to building intergenerational dialogue right here in the Delta.
The Strange and Sacred Labor of James Hampton
James Hampton died with sixty dollars in the bank and left behind a garage filled with thrones. Built from foil, cardboard, and discarded furniture, his monumental installation was the product of fourteen years of midnight labor. The Strange and Sacred Labor of James Hampton explores how faith, discipline, and endurance shaped one of the most extraordinary works in American art.
Is a Color Just Color? Or Something Else Entirely?
When you stand in front of a painting by Daryl Triplett or Don Cincone, color doesn’t just sit on the wall — it shifts the air around you. This post explores how pigment becomes presence, memory, and material force.
10 Things You Might Not Know About Black Museums
Museums dedicated to Black artists do more than preserve culture—they actively shape art history. Explore ten lesser-known truths about how Black museums function, from collection policies to conservation practices, and why these institutions matter now more than ever.
Painting vs Photography
Painting and photography are often treated as unequal in museum spaces. This essay examines the material labor, technical mastery, and historical responsibility shared by both—and why each remains essential to preserving Black history.
Who Is Going to Build Our Future?
We’ve asked who built power before. Now we have to ask what comes next. As Black History Month begins, this essay turns from legacy to responsibility—and from commemoration to construction.
Who Is Maggie Lena Walker?: Power Through Black Institutions
History often answers the question Who is Maggie Lena Walker? with a familiar list of accomplishments. But lists have a way of flattening lives shaped by pressure, intention, and constraint. This essay begins not with an answer, but with a closer look at how one woman learned to build something meant to last inside a world that did not expect it to endure.
What’s Up With That?
The art world has preserved paintings by presidents, monarchs, and even disgraced political figures. Yet when it comes to Black civil rights leaders, the record is strikingly silent. This post asks what that absence reveals—and why it matters.
Who Is Sarah Breedlove?
The question sounds simple: Who is Sarah Breedlove? But the answer refuses to arrive all at once. This essay opens a Black History Month series by tracing how legacy, labor, and imagination quietly shaped a life story that history is still learning how to tell.