Visiting Artist Talk: Antawan Byrd | Krannert Art Museum

“Being Seen Listening: Photography, Pan-Africanism, and the Public Square”
How does photography make acts of listening visible and politically consequential? Drawing from his current book project, Antawan Byrd’s talk centers on photographs of midcentury gatherings during decolonization and civil rights struggles. Rooted in art-historical inquiry, he engages a Pan-African archive of images that document practices of attention, encode fraught claims to public space, and circulate models of collective life. The talk explores how acts of public listening have functioned as both aesthetic strategies and instruments of state coercion, with consequences for how we understand political participation and assembly.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Antawan I. Byrd is associate curator, Photography and Media, at the Art Institute of Chicago. Since joining the museum in 2017, he has contributed to the exhibition Volta Photo: Starring Sanlé Sory and the People of Bobo-Dioulasso in the Small but Musically Mighty Country of Burkina Faso (2018) and curated and co-edited the catalogue for The People Shall Govern! Medu Art Ensemble and the Anti-Apartheid Poster (2019) with Felicia Mings. He recently curated Mimi Cherono Ng’ok: Closer to the Earth, Closer to My Own Body, the first solo presentation in the United States of the Kenyan-born photographer.
Antawan specializes in modern and contemporary art of Africa and the African diaspora with a particular focus on histories of photography, sound, urbanism, and popular culture. In addition to his role at the museum, he serves as assistant professor of art history at Northwestern University. He received the Award for Curatorial Excellence from the Arts Council of the African Studies Association in 2017, and his research has been supported by an Andrew Mellon-CLIR fellowship, a Mellon-COSI fellowship, and a Fulbright fellowship.
Part of the School of Art & Design Visiting Artists series.
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Krannert Art Museum
Tue–Fri 10–5 | Sat 10–4
Thu until 8 pm, when class is in session
217-244-0745 · kam.illinois.edu
🅿️ Parking nearby is free on weekends.
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EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
FALL 2026
OCTOBER
1 · SPEAK Café, 6–7:30 pm
2 · Noontime Gallery Talk & Tour, 12 pm
3 · Teen Artist's Retreat, 10 am–3 pm · Anita Purves Nature Center & Krannert Art Museum. Sign up at urbanaparks.org. (15 participants)
8 · Opening Day | In Search of a Future
10 · Curator Talk & Tour | In Search of a Future, 10:30 am
10 · In the Studio: Thrown and Altered Clay Workshop, with Catherine Wiesener, 1–3 pm · U of I Allen Hall, Ceramics Lab (Room 89), 1005 W. Gregory Dr., Urbana. (10 participants) EVENT FULL
10 · Fall Fusion Festival, 3–7 pm · Watercolor painting and live music in downtown Urbana.
14 · Creative Aging Tour & Memory Café, 1–3 pm
17 · Kids at KAM: Artmaking and More! 10:30 am–12:30 pm
22 · Visiting Artist Talk | Tyson E. Lewis, 5:30–7 pm
29 · Visiting Artist Talk | Antawan Byrd, 5:30–7 pm
NOVEMBER
Nov 3–7 · Weeklong Residency with Exhibiting Artist Yao Jui-Chung
4 · MillerComm Lecture | Landscape as Storytelling: The Journey of "Yao’s Black Divine Comedy" with Yao Jiu-Chung & Kao Chien-Hui, 4 pm reception, 5 pm event · Levis Faculty Center, Room 210, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana
5 · Opening Reception | Ink Shower: Contemporary Taiwanese Artists Reimagine Tradition, 5–7 pm
6 · Panel Discussion | Ink Shower Artists, 2–3:30 pm, Temple Buell Hall, Plym Auditorium, 611 E. Lorado Taft Dr., Champaign
7 · Curator Talk & Tour | Ink Shower, 10:30 am
12 · SPEAK Café, 6 pm
13 · Noontime Gallery Talk & Tour, 12 pm
14 · Improvisers Exchange: Sonic Location, 1–3 pm
Nov 26–28 · Closed for Thanksgiving holiday
DECEMBER
3 · Day With(out) Art: Film Screening & Discussion for World AIDS Day, 5:30 pm
4 · Noontime Gallery Talk & Tour, 12 pm
5 · Artventures for Kids! 1–3 pm
10 · FAA Finals Fest, 12–3:30 pm · For U of I students.
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For updates:
kam.illinois.edu/events
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We offer a variety of accessibility supports to help ensure visitors can participate. Contact us at [email protected] for questions or to request accommodations.
Krannert Art Museum acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.