The Savannah College of Art and Design is proud to announce the appointment of Andreia Wardlaw as the director of the Walter and Linda Evans Center for African American Studies at the SCAD Museum of Art. Wardlaw is an experienced leader and community builder who is passionate about education and the arts.
“The varied traditions in African American art have long served as a way to illuminate the voices of the community and celebrate Black culture,” Wardlaw said. “I’m honored to have the opportunity to elevate the esteemed presence of SCAD MOA’s Evans Center in hopes of building on its legacy of being a preeminent space for engagement with Black art.”
Wardlaw received an M.A. in African American studies from Columbia University. Prior to joining SCAD, she worked at the Center for Women’s History at the New York Historical Society and taught in higher education. As director of the Evans Center, Wardlaw will work closely with the SCAD community, renowned artists, designers, and scholars to develop programming that enhances public knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of Black art, culture and literature.
“We are thrilled to have Andreia Wardlaw as the new director of the SCAD Museum of Art’s Walter and Linda Evans Center for African American Studies,” said SCAD MOA chief curator Daniel S. Palmer. “The depth of her experience working in various aspects of African American studies and culture will be a tremendous resource to SCAD students and the many visitors who come to see the remarkable exhibitions on view at the museum. Since its founding, the Evans Center has been a beacon that highlights transformative stories of contemporary Black culture, and we look forward to this continuing for years to come.”
SCAD established the Walter and Linda Evans Center for African American Studies within the prestigious SCAD Museum of Art in 2011. The Evan’s gifted the museum more than 60 important works by renowned African American artists including Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Robert S. Duncanson, Richard Hunt, and Jacob Lawrence. The collection forms the foundation of a multidisciplinary center for the study, understanding, and appreciation of African American art and culture. A permanent gallery space in the museum is also dedicated to exhibiting the work of contemporary African American artists.
SCAD MOA’s Evans Center has continually exhibited and celebrated Black artists, including internationally heralded exhibitions focused on the legacies of Jacob Lawrence and Frederick Douglass, as well as contemporary exhibitions by Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, Fred Wilson, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kenturah Davis, Chase Hall, Nina Chanel Abney, Awol Erizku, and others.
Under Wardlaw’s direction, the Evans Center is presenting a summer film series titled Black Culture Rewind. The series continues Friday, July 19, at 6 p.m. with a screening of Julie Dash’s DaughtersoftheDust, a 2004 selection for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Dash’s seminal film shines a cinematic light on the rich Gullah Geechee history of St. Helena Island, S.C. Prior to the screening, a conversation with Gullah Geechee Sweetgrass Basket expert Amadu Massally will explore the diasporic connections between the Savannah Sea Islands and West Africa.
For more information, visit scadmoa.org.
