Race Stories: Celebrating Maurice Berger

1000 Hilltop Circle, Fine Arts Building, 105

Join the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), to celebrate the life and legacy of Maurice Berger, a former research professor and chief curator at the CADVC until his passing in 2020.

CADVC announces the launch of the Maurice Berger CADVC Program Fund, in support of the exploration of and research into the histories of race, representation, and justice in visual culture, with the goal of creating accessible public programming. On the occasion of this announcement, CADVC and Aperture celebrate the publication of Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images (copublished by Aperture and the New York Times, 2024), a collection of award-winning essays by Maurice Berger, authored during his CADVC tenure. The book explores the powerful roles photography plays in shaping ideas and attitudes about race. 

The afternoon’s panelists will include Marvin Heiferman, Berger’s husband and editor of Race Stories, Aruna D’Souza, writer and professor, Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, the founder of the Vision & Justice series, Lowery Stokes Sims, curator and art historian, Maleke Glee, cultural worker and professor, Tim Nohe, artist and educator, Kimberly R. Moffitt, professor and author, and Rebecca Uchill, professor and curator. 

This event also celebrates the relaunch of CADVC’s Issues in Cultural Theory publication series and the release of Cockeysville to Baltimore, which is supported by the Maurice Berger CADVC Program Fund. The booklet accompanies the exhibition Levester Williams: all matters aside and its associated public video-art projection series. The gallery will be open for a special viewing beginning at 2:30 p.m., and the event will be followed by a reception after 5:00 p.m.

This event is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required and can be made here. More information about this event can be found on the CADVC website. 

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Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images

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Aruna D’Souza is a writer, professor, and curator focused on intersectional feminisms and diasporic aesthetics. Her work appears regularly in 4Columns, the New York Times, and in numerous artist’s monographs and exhibition catalogs. In 2022, she was appointed as the Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and, in 2022–2023, the W.W. Corcoran Visiting Professor of Social Engagement at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University, Washington, DC. Her most recent book, Imperfect Solidarities, was published in 2024.

Marvin Heiferman organizes exhibitions, online projects, and publications about photography and visual culture for institutions that have included the Museum of Modern Art, International Center of Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New Museum, all in New York. He has written for museums, galleries, monographs, blogs, and magazines including the New York Times, Gagosian Quarterly, CNN, Artforum, Design Observer, Aperture, Art in America, and BOMB. He has authored and edited numerous other books including Aperture’s Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images, by Maurice Berger (copublished with the New York Times, 2024).

Sarah Elizabeth Lewis is the founder of Vision & Justice series and is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Lewis is the editor of the award-winning volumes “Vision & Justice,” by Aperture magazine, and the anthology on the work of Carrie Mae Weems (MIT Press). She is the organizer of the landmark Vision & Justice Convening at Harvard University, and coeditor of the Vision & Justice Book Series, launched in partnership with Aperture. 

Lowery Stokes Sims has served on the education and curatorial staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, led as executive director and president of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and retired as curator emerita from the Museum of Art and Design, New York, in 2015. As an independent curator and art historian, she has lectured nationally and internationally and has been involved in projects with the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, New York, the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles; and the CADVC at UMBC. 

Maleke Glee is a cultural worker, writer, and professor based in Washington, DC. He explores the intersections of fine art, popular culture, and vernacular expression. In addition to a curatorial and writing practice, Maleke consults with small- and medium-sized institutions and corporations to better instill cultural competency and authentically engage communities in storytelling projects. He has held positions with STABLE Arts, Washington, DC, Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Prince George’s African American Museum, Maryland. He has curated exhibitions for Howard University, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporic Arts, New York, and No Longer Empty, New York, among others. 

Tim Nohe is an artist, composer, and educator engaging traditional and electronic media in civic life and public places. His work focuses on sustainability and place, as well as musical and video works for dance and live performance. He is a tenured professor of visual arts at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He was the recipient of a 2006 Australian–American Fulbright Commission Senior Scholar Award and was awarded the Commission’s 2011 Fulbright Alumni Initiative Grant. Nohe has presented his work in a range of national and international venues, including IMPAKT, Netherlands; Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin; the Louvre Museum, Paris; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museu da Imagem e do Som, São Paulo; and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC.

Kimberly Moffitt holds a PhD in communication and media studies from Howard University. She joined the UMBC community as an assistant professor of American studies. Before assuming the role of dean for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, she was professor and director of the Language, Literacy and Culture doctoral program and affiliate professor of Africana studies. Her media criticism research focuses on mediated representations of marginalized groups as well as the politicized nature of Black hair and the body. 

Rebecca Uchill is director of CADVC and Professor of the Practice at the College of Art, Humanities, and Social Sciences at UMBC. She is an art historian, curator, and critic of contemporary art. Prior to joining UMBC, she was lecturer and director of Community Engagement Initiatives at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Her research in the history and theory of modern and contemporary art and cultural stewardship has been published in numerous scholarly books and journals including Architectural Theory Review, Journal of Art Historiography, and Journal of Curatorial Studies.

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Image: Leonard Freed, Marian Wright Edelman (center, wearing scarf) and others during the March on Washington, Washington, DC, August 28, 1963; from Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images (Aperture, 2024); © Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos