Diversifying the arts
Across the country, recent conversations on issues of race, diversity, and inclusion have sought to address both recognition of past injustices and current disparities. At Harvard, the work of scholars such as Sarah Lewis ’01, assistant professor of the history of art and architecture and of African and African American Studies, provides invaluable context to these discussions. Through her course “Vision and Justice: The Art of Citizenship,” as well as an exhibit at the Harvard Art Museums and an issue of Aperture Magazine by the same title that she edited, Lewis uses seminal artwork and photographs of black people — from slavery to today — to “show the impact of art and visual culture in instances of social injustice.” Lewis says that “our sense of citizenship and race are largely defined by visual literacy, a shared language developed by the histories attached to the pictures we circulate of each other to both reinforce...