EXTRA CREDIT is a new education series that aims to provide a general overview of contemporary art and to demystify the field for those outside of the art world. It is ideal for anyone interested in learning more and for those looking to further engage with exhibitions and museums. Classes will take place on Sundays at 12PM from June 4 through July 30.

Anthony Romero presents Is the Art World Racist and What to Do About It? It is too simple to say that the contemporary art world is racist, in part because the problem of racism and racialization necessarily requires us to think, as artist and writer Dan S. Wang observes, about “three overlapping frameworks: a political history, a personal history, and a global context,” all of which are larger than any one art world. It also has to do in part with so-called “progressive” and “liberal” ideologies that run rampant in the contemporary art world. Ideologies that have art institutions and organizations large and small self-consciously admitting to having a “race” or “diversity” problem. That the art world understands it has a “race” or “diversity” problem allows it to relieve the pressures of having to correct the problem structurally. It can just as easily correct itself superficially through ethnically and culturally specific exhibitions, programs, and initiatives, all of which make present an absence without moving towards presence in any real and permanent way. Is the Art World Racist and What to Do About It? lays out a critical historical framework for thinking about race and racialized practices within contemporary art institutions and organizations while proposing alternative strategies, policy, and structural changes that might aid programmatic initiatives in creating a more equitable and inclusive art world.

This event is free and open to the public; register here.

ANTHONY ROMERO is an artist, writer, and organizer committed to documenting and supporting artists and communities of color. Recent projects included, The Social Practice That Is Race, written with Dan S. Wang and published by Wooden Leg Press, and Buenos Dias, Chicago!, a two-year performance project produced in collaboration with Mexican immigrant and Mexican-American communities in Chicago and commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Extra Credit is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.