Join Christine Passarella as she engages in an illuminating discussion focusing on the art and life of master artist Romare Bearden. Her guest Diedra Harris Kelley is the Co-Director of the Romare Bearden Foundation. Ms. Harris Kelley is also the niece of Romare Bearden and she offers rich insight into this creative genius.

Views & Voices is a series of brief and personal responses to works of art and film selected by BAMPFA staff who work in different departments . . . some, by UC Berkeley students as well. At a time of distance, these commentaries are designed to bring you closer both to individual people behind BAMPFA and to individual works in our collections. 

We hope you'll enjoy hearing these personal views. Here, Claire Ittner discusses Romare Bearden’s 1973 work, "Final Study for Berkeley - The City and Its People".

Relocating Romare Bearden’s Berkeley: Capturing Berkeley’s Colorful Diversity

https://boomcalifornia.com/2016/12/26/relocating-romare-beardens-berkeley-capturing-berkeleys-colorful-diversity/

https://bampfa.org/program/about-things-loved-blackness-and-belonging

Lois Reitzes talks with Mary Schmidt Campbell, president of Spelman College, about her biography of the artist Romare Bearden, "An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden"; The Rev. Dr. Dwight Andrews about playwright August Wilson; and playwright Will Power about "Seize the King," his retelling of Shakespeare's "Richard the Third."

With an artistic career that began with political cartoons in his college newspaper, Romare Bearden moved between mediums and styles throughout his life, although his artistic breakthroughs did not come without hard work. Over the course of a long career that spanned a tumultuous period in the fight for representation and civil rights for African Americans in the United States, Bearden became a deeply influential artist. Art historian Mary Schmidt Campbell delves into Bearden’s fascinating life and career in her new book An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden, which is the topic of this podcast episode.

Campbell is President of Spelman College and Dean Emerita of the Tisch School of the Arts. She served as the vice chair of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities under former president Barack Obama.

Through his paintings and collages, Romare Bearden crafts powerful stories that celebrate African American communities and illustrate distinctive black experiences. Join our hosts as they discuss Bearden's work and describe the layers of his importance.

Johanne Bryant Reid managed to merge her business career with her passion for the arts. While working at Merrill Lynch as Manager of its Global Human Resources Department, she joined the Board of the Romare Bearden Foundation. After serving as primary fundraiser for 7 years, she was named co-director in 2009. The foundation was created in 1990 as a non-profit, aimed at preserving and perpetuating the legacy of this pre-eminent African/American artist. So the Reid/Bearden match makes perfect sense. He made art, she makes sure it lives on. Sit back and enjoy this engaging conversation.