The Marronage; Meaning Wild Confluence series brings together global artists, scholars, and activists for year-long gatherings exploring wetlands’ cultural significance, emphasizing their historical role as refuge spaces, and reimagining indigeneity as a commitment to environmental stewardship, culminating in a convening program. The Rivers Institute plans to establish an online platform for sharing materials, reaching around 1,200 individuals via newsletters and Instagram, and to collaborate with Montez Radio Press to transform Confluence artists’ work into a radio series, aiming to foster broader audience engagement and promote innovative discourse across various mediums and geographical areas. 

To support Affrilachian Art Summit, the first gathering solely dedicated to exploring the contributions of Black visual artists in Appalachia, addressing barriers and fostering discussions on solutions for emerging Affrilachian artists. Organized by the Affrilachian Artist Project, the Black Appalachian Coalition, and the curator Marie T. Cochran, the three-day hybrid event features symposia, workshops, and networking opportunities aimed at both established and emerging Black artists in the region. The event proceedings are preserved and disseminated through an archive library (more than 100,000 viewers annually), an open-access resource guide, and virtual streaming options for select sessions to accommodate remote participation. 

To support Reimagining Viral Futures through the Visual AIDS Archive: The Sensory Aesthetics of Ronald Lockett and Robert Farber, a two-day intensive studio convening and public symposium centered around the work of two artists lost to the AIDS crisis: Robert Farber (1948–1995) and Ronald Lockett (1965–1998). The event brings together a diverse group of activists, artists, curators, and theorists, who engage with Farber’s and Lockett’s work and elaborate on themes of beauty, ruination, fugitivity, and the gothic. Materials from the convening and symposium, along with access to a special issue of Social Text, are made available online on the Visual AIDS website.

To support Shifts and Strands: Rethinking the Possibilities and Potentials of Textiles, an online international symposium that highlights artists, scholars, scientists, and caretakers exploring textile materials, cultures, and histories, aiming to promote equity, antiracism, and accessibility in the textile field. Through case studies, curatorial projects, and research centering Indigenous American textiles, the program seeks to advance decolonial, abolitionist, antiracist, and equitable frameworks in textile studies and practices. The virtual platform hosting the Textile Society of America’s (TSA) 2024 Symposium offers recorded proceedings accessible for 90 days after the event; the Symposium Proceedings, slated to be published six months later through a partnership with the University of Nebraska—Lincoln, will be freely available online, alongside promotion through TSA’s website, newsletters, social media, and further dissemination through a curated special issue in the Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice, ensuring lasting accessibility and global reach. 

To support Energies: A Symposium, a two-day interdisciplinary event to accompany the group exhibition Energies (working title) at the Swiss Institute (SI) and nearby partner organizations. The symposium focuses on the historical and contemporary dimensions of energy, including discussions on community, ecology, social issues, and geopolitics, inspired by the story of a rooftop windmill installed during the 1973 oil crisis at 519 E 11th St. in New York. By looking at the ways art and energy intersect, this symposium, bringing together artists, academics, architects, activists, and broader audiences, examines colonial legacies, ancestral technologies, nonhuman communities, extractivism, geopolitics, Indigeneity, agriculture, and urban politics. The symposium will be live-streamed. The edited final cut will be featured on the SI website, and a climate-friendly publication will be produced and distributed globally. 

To support In Relation: Photography’s Communities, a three-day hybrid convening at the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) at the University of Arizona in Tucson, exploring the role of photography in addressing issues of visibility, belonging, and representation, especially within Latinx and diasporic communities, with a focus on fostering connections and dialogue among participants. The symposium draws inspiration from the fall 2024 exhibitions at the CCP. The symposium is disseminated through the live–streaming and the recording of select content, accessible for three months on the Photography Network’s website member portal and advertised via social media platforms with thousands of followers and the PN listserv, as well as through partnerships with the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) and other local institutions. 

To support Hueniverse: A Convening Centering Culturally Responsive Arts Practices, a one-day conference hosted by Museum Hue at BRIC Arts Media in Brooklyn, NY, aiming to bring together arts administrators, artists, scholars, and community members to explore the contributions of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and all People of Color to the arts and cultural sector. While prioritizing these voices, the conference  is open to all within the arts field, offering curated presentations, workshops, and plenary conversations covering topics such as HueArts reports, professional development strategies, case studies of museums, and interactive workshops for arts professionals. The event sessions are recorded in collaboration with the BRIC Art’s team and made available online with captioning. Expecting more than 10,000 viewers based on previous site traffic, the session recordings are  accessible to ticket–holders for two weeks before being released to the public, with engagement encouraged through follow-up emails and social media announcements. Presenters are invited to contribute articles for online publication. 

The Minnesota Marine Art Museum (MMAM) plans three site-specific convenings, drawing from the exhibition A Nation Takes Place. The first, held at Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut, examines historical representations of the sea and the inclusion of Black and Native Maritime histories. The second, at A Studio In The Woods and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, explores artists’ engagement with the ocean’s symbolism and ecological impact. The final convening, at Jim’s Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center, Hannibal, Missouri, focuses on historical exploitation in the workings of maritime economies, particularly emphasizing Black lives along the Mississippi River. MMAM plans to enhance its communications about the exhibition and the three convenings through the use of a new app-based portal by Blomberg Connects, aiming to make arts and culture more accessible. Documentation of the convenings through photography and video will be repurposed for the app and integrated into the website devoted to A Nation Takes Place. 

To support Forgotten Federal Art Legacies: PWAP to CETA, a convening in San Francisco, that brings together Living New Deal (LND) and CETA Legacy Project leaders, local art professionals, and students in San Francisco to explore the long-term impact of New Deal art initiatives, particularly within the context of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). This event aims to highlight the connections between New Deal and CETA art projects, document their legacies, and strategize contemporary approaches to appreciating their intertwined histories. The event’s dissemination plan includes professional videography for panel discussions, publication of a summary on the Living New Deal’s webpages and in its newsletter “The Fireside,” with potential additional publications in periodicals such as Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art.

To support Scientia Sexualis: Reckoning and Repair, a convening on the intersection of art and medical histories featuring a keynote lecture by Paul B. Preciado and panel discussions on resisting the medical gaze, engaging with colonial histories, and addressing marginalization in society. The convening will be recorded, with panel discussions posted on ICA LA’s YouTube channel and further promoted through the museum’s website, newsletters, and social media platforms, with the aim of having the recordings serve as a lasting resource for artists, students, scholars, and other audience members.