School of Art Welcomes Artist, Activist and Educator Endia Beal to Virtual Lecture Series

courtesy of the artist

Endia Beal

The School of Art is pleased to continue the visiting artist, designer and scholar lecture series at the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences virtually this year. In partnership with the School, The Center for Photographers of Color hosts the first visiting artist of the semester, Endia Beal.

The School of Art welcomes the artist and educator and is excited to invite the community to her lecture. The lecture is tonight, Thursday, Sept. 3 at 5:30 p.m. on Zoom.

Beal is a North Carolina based artist, educator and activist. She is internationally known for her photographic narratives and video testimonies that examine the personal stories of women of color working within the corporate space. Beal will lecture about these experiences and addressing bias in corporate hiring practices.

Her work directly aligns with The Center for Photographers of Color's mission to provide accessible programming to the university and Northwest Arkansas community, explore ways of creating positive change and showing examples of how to influence and inform thinking in a variety of cultural and social settings.

Aaron Turner, coordinator for the center, describes Beal as an individual boldly confronting issues that people of color and women face in the workplace environment. He shares how she provides an honest introspective on what it means to be othered.

"The School of Art and The Center for Photographers of Color are very proud to welcome Endia Beal as a visiting lecturer," said Turner. "I am thrilled to host this lecture at a time when our university and higher education institutions across the country, are confronting racial injustice and biases to create a truly diverse and inclusive space. I believe art is the perfect starting point for conversations like this."

Beal is featured in several online editorials including The New York Times, NBC, BET, the Huffington Post, Slate Magazine, and National Geographic; she also appeared in Essence, Marie Claire South Africa, Newsweek Japan, and Photo District News. Her work has been exhibited in several institutions including the Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina; the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Art and Culture in Charlotte, North Carolina; and the Association of International Photography Art Dealers Photography Show, Open Society Foundation, and Aperture Foundation, New York.

She is a 2019 Fellow of the Center for Curatorial Leadership and recently completed a residency at Harvard Art Museums. Beal received grants from the Magnum Foundation and the Open Society Foundation, among others. Her work is in several private collections.

Beal holds a dual Bachelors of Art in art history and studio art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an Masters of Fine Arts from Yale University.

All are invited to learn more about Endia Beal's work and experience tonight, Thursday, Sept. 3, on Zoom. To register for the event please click here.