Vera Grant, curator of the UMMA exhibition Cullen Washington, Jr.: The Public Square, presents an expansive look at the exhibition, and the artist’s recent series, Agoras. The compositions explore the ancient Greek public space as a site for activated assembly, through the dual lens of race and humanity.

Vera Ingrid Grant is an art consultant, curator, and writer, living in Ann Arbor, MI. Grant served as Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, and curator of modern and contemporary art at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) in 2018-19. Previously, she was the founding director of the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art at the Hutchins Center, Harvard University. She most recently curated Cullen Washington, Jr.: The Public Square; Reflections: An Ordinary Day. Grant has an MA in Modern European History from Stanford University with a concentration in comparative studies of race and visual culture and was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Hamburg. She was the Associate Director for the Program in African and African American Studies (2001-2007) at Stanford University. She was a fellow (2015-16) at the Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL). January 29th. 

Lead support for this exhibition is provided by Erica Gervais Pappendick and Ted Pappendick, Candy and Michael Barasch, the University of Michigan Office of the Provost, Michigan Medicine, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the Institute for the Humanities. Additional generous support is provided by the University of Michigan Department of History of Art, School of Education, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, School of Social Work, and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.