Keynote: Derrick Adams & Zoe Charlton
Breaking It Down Conversation
Breaking It Down: Conversations from the Vault is a deep dive and a new take on key artists in the collection and the support given to them by the Phillips. In this spirit of foregrounding the artist’s career, The Phillips Collection hosts a series of conversations between artists and their greatest supporters, as selected by the artist.
Join us for the keynote of the series, a conversation with Derrick Adams and Zoë Charlton on artists supporting artists.
This event takes place during Third Thursdays. Visit the galleries for free from 5-8 pm.
Zoë Charlton
Zoë Charlton (Baltimore, MD) creates figure drawings, collages, installations, and animations that depict her subject’s relationship to culturally loaded objects and landscapes. Charlton co-founded ‘sindikit (2016-2022) with DC-based artist Tim Doud, a collaborative art initiative that centers creative research and projects in gender, sexuality, and race. She co-founded of Kindred Creative Residence + Agro-ForesT (2022-2023), based in Fletcher, VT, a BIPOC LGBTQIA+ led, inclusive collective of farmers, artists, educators, and activists committed to teaching sustainable living through regenerative agriculture, community outreach, and arts education. Charlton held a seat on the Maryland State Arts Council for two 3-year terms (2018-23). She is a board member at the Washington Project for the Arts (DC) and Threewalls (IL). From 2003-2022, she taught full-time at American University (DC) and received tenure in 2009. She served as Chair of the Department of Art from 2015-2018 and was the first Black American tenured, Full Professor in the department. Charlton is currently a tenured, Full Professor of Art and Director of the School of Art at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Charlton served on an 8-member steering committee at the Baltimore Museum of Art to reimagine equitable and accountable structures and functions of cultural institutions within diverse local and regional communities from 2022-23.
Derrick Adams
Derrick Adams is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Adams’ work celebrates and expands the dialogue around contemporary Black life and culture through scenes of normalcy and perseverance. He received his BFA from Pratt Institute, New York, in 1996 and graduated with an MFA from Columbia University, New York, in 2003. In addition to his critically acclaimed art practice, Adams has held numerous teaching positions and is currently a tenured assistant professor in the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts at CUNY Brooklyn College. He also holds an honorary doctorate from Maryland Institute College of Art.