Collections Connections with BAMSM and Romi Crawford

About Collections Connections

Scholars are invited to engage their research projects in relation to our collections. These contributions build connections to our archives, and offer opportunities for engagement and discussion.

About BAMSM

BAMSM is conceived by Romi Crawford and was supported in 2021 by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Northwestern University; Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture and Arts + Public Life at the University of Chicago; Colby College; Whitney Museum of American Art; Stanford University Department of Art and Art History; Yale School of Art; The Space for Creative Black Imagination at MICA; Terra Foundation for American Art; and the Museum of Vernacular Arts and Knowledge.

BAMSM is part of Art Design Chicago, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art exploring and elevating Chicago’s rich art and design histories and diverse creative communities through exhibitions, events, and publications.

About Romi Crawford

Romi Crawford, Ph.D., Professor, Visual and Critical Studies and Liberal Arts departments. Her research and courses explore areas of race and ethnicity as they relate to American visual culture (including art, film, and photography). She is co-author of The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago (Northwestern University Press, 2017). Additional publications include “Do For Self: The AACM and the Chicago Style” in Support Networks (University of Chicago Press, 2014); “Ebony and Jet on Our Mind” in Speaking of People (The Studio Museum in Harlem, 2014); and Theaster Gates Black Archive (with Thomas D. Trummer and Hamza Walker), published by Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2017. She was co-curator of the 2017 Open Engagement conference in Chicago and founding the Museum of Vernacular Arts and Knowledge (MOVAK), a project based platform for art making that is out of sync with museum and gallery values. She was previously Curator and Director of the Education Department at the Studio Museum in Harlem. She received a B.A. from Oberlin College and A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago.

Host or Publisher Rebuild Foundation