Curator Speaks:

What is inclusion and diversity today? We are recognizing more and more people and communities that have been marginalized for decades.

If we look at the word “marginalized,” we’re talking about a person, group, or concept that has been left out, treated as insignificant, and on the peripheral. When I think of those terms, I think about indigenous communities. I think about the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A and Latinx community, anyone from the African diaspora, and individuals who are dealing with immobility and visible/invisible disabilities.

In addition, inviting an African-American female artist to curate an exhibit in collaboration with Trout Museum of Art, is radical in and of itself. Offering me the space and opportunity to say; this is what has been missing. This is the void and we must do better.  I have no doubt that this exhibition will serve as an agent of change for inclusion and could not have happened at a more challenging time, while we are in the midst of a global pandemic and ongoing racial unrest.

About Tyanna J Buie, Guest Curator

A Chicago and Milwaukee native, Tyanna Buie received her BA from Western Illinois University and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Buie has attended Artists-In-Residency programs, including the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, LA, The Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT. She maintains a connection to the community by hosting printmaking workshops and demonstrations, while participating in Healthy Neighborhood Initiatives through the production of public art in underserved Wisconsin neighborhoods.

In 2012, Buie received an emerging artist Mary L. Nohl Fellowship and is the recipient of the 2015 Love of Humanity Award from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, the recipient of the prestigious 2015 Joan Mitchell Painters & Sculptors Grant, the 2019 Kresge Artist Fellowship/Visual Arts, the 2019/2020 Grant Wood Fellowship in Printmaking at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA, and the 2020 Fellowship.art award, a top accelerator award/program funded through gener8tor. Buie’s work has been acquired by major institutions and private collections nationally and her work has been reviewed on Hyperallergic.com and featured on Essay’d.com. Currently, Buie is an Assistant Professor/Section Chair of Printmaking at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI.