Edmonia Lewis: An Artist in Community

Join us for a dynamic interdisciplinary conversation exploring a range of themes in the exhibition Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone. The first Black and Indigenous woman sculptor to achieve international acclaim, Lewis broke social, racial and geographical boundaries through her art. From her childhood navigating the U.S.-Canada border with her Mississauga relatives to her career as a professional artist in Italy, Lewis used art to forge new networks and solidarities that transcended time and space.

This panel considers the communities Lewis was a part of during her own lifetime and her enduring legacy today, and highlights new perspectives and discoveries about her that continue to emerge even after the opening of PEM’s exhibition. Our panel guests include historian Tiya Miles, whose prize-winning publications have examined the Black-Indigenous intertwined past; poet Tyehimba Jess, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning book Olio (2017) gave voice to Lewis and her sculptures through several poems; and art historian Joseph Mizhakiiyaasige Zordan (Bad River Ojibwe), a key contributor to the Said in Stone exhibition catalogue and a scholar of Indigenous and American art. Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, PEM’s George Putnam Curator of American Art and co-curator of the exhibition, will also join the discussion.