Review of Aruna D'Souza's virtual event

On 9/23/2020 3:30pm, there was a virtual event hosted by Clarice Smith Distinguished Lectures in American Art series. I was lucky to find the recorded lecture on youtube, and listened the lecture taught by a noted critic Aruna D'Souza. The lecture was about modern and contemporary art, intersectional feminisms, and how museums shape our views of each other and our world. In the lecture, D'Souza talked about the concepts that interrelated to empathy translation and visibility, to understand political transformation. First, she talked about a book named sea of poppies, written by amitav ghosh in 2008, as an example of proving her point that empathy is a base for understanding. Secondly, she mentioned an interview of kameelah janan rasheed, D'Souza said: Resheed was cautioned about what is lost as historically white museum and other institutions try to make visible what they have been guilty of making invisible for so much of their histories. (D'Souza 20:40-20:53 ) 

I like how she connect the concept empathy with political, history, and religions. D'Souza provided different perspectives on the concept of empathy. Also, I really like all of the resources and examples she used and demonstrate how those artworks demonstrate the concepts. 

                                   Jennifer Packer, Swim, c. 2011, Charcoal on paper

I think she should cover more detail about white supremacy museums and institution. She mentioned the problem they are having, but I wish she can talk more in depth. One problem I notice is that those white supremacy museums has very limited freedom to chose which artwork they want to exhibit. It is because the artwork they chose have to please their donor, which in most of cases are white. For example, the Met is very conservative because most of the donors are conservative white supremacists. It is hard for the white supremacy museums to go against the donors if they don't have other resources for their funds. 

I really agree with D'Souza's point that art cannot be fully understand and sometimes misunderstanding is the pleasure. I feel contemporary art is a personal expression of the artists themselves. So as general public, we cannot request artists to create specific artwork to please the public's emotion needs. Instead, curators, critics, and galleries should be more inclusive. They should have more empathy and introduce more diverse artworks. However, I also understand that the museums and art institutions are trying to please their donors. Thus, in order to make art museum more inclusive and diverse. I think government should have more funds to arts. It can support the art institutions so they don't have to rely on donations. Also, we should educate the whole society to have more empathy to understand and accept others. 

                    Aruna D'Souza, 09/23/2020 3:30pm, Clarice Smith Distinguished Lecture

work citation:

Smithsonian American Art Museum"Clarice Smith Distinguished Lecture: Critic Aruna D'Souza". Online video clip. YouTube, 23 Sept. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN9BQm9Hmf0&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 24 Sept. 2020.