Willie Birch (United States, b. 1941), Looking Towards Algiers, 2017. Charcoal and acrylic on paper. Courtesy of the artist.
Saturday, June 7 , 2025 | 11a - 4p + 7p Riverfront Concert
Presented by the Minnesota Marine Art Museum
Hosted by Jim’s Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom CEnter
The event is free, registration required by clicking below.
Exhibition catalogs, A Nation Takes Place: Navigating Race and Water in Contemporary Art will be available for purchase at the event for $39.95 or available for pick up at the event if purchased through the presale along with your registration.
About
With additional support from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum is co-hosting a series of national convenings as part of the A Nation Takes Place project, bringing together artists, writers, curators, scholars, community organizers, and art professionals at critical waterways in the United States to further discussion, knowledge sharing, and cultivating networks to address new and emerging scholarship, curatorial practices and artistic expression that centers Indigenous and Black voices within the marine art and maritime genre.
Central Missouri + Mississippi River Convening Schedule
11a - 11:45a: Site Visit | Jim’s Journey | 509 N 3rd St, Hannibal, MO 63401
Executive Director Faye Dant provides a guided tour of Jim's Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center. Jim’s Journey is the country's first memorial to Jim, the runaway enslaved man who becomes Huck's loyal friend and moral compass in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; the first to pay homage to Jim's prototype Daniel Quarles; and the only African American history museum in Northeast Missouri.
12pm - 12:45p: Site Visit | The Alliance Art Gallery | 121 N Main Hannibal, MO 63401
Guided tour of ‘visionary artist, Preston Jackson’s exhibition. Jackson was chosen a 1998 Laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, the highest honor given to individuals in the State. He is professor emeritus of sculpture at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.
12:45p - 2p: Break for Lunch (on own)
2p - 4p: Panel Presentation | 314 S Main Hannibal, MO 63401
Welcome By Convening Host, Faye Dant, Executive Director of Jim’s Journey. Introduction to A Nation Takes Place, Scott Pollock, Executive Director of MMAM. Curatorial Vision of A Nation Takes Place, by Shana m. griffin and Tia Simone-Gardner. Featuring presentations by Geoff K. Ward, Professor of African & African American Studies, Director, WashU & Slavery Project and Co-Lead, Memory for the Future, and Renée Brummell Franklin Chief Diversity Officer, St. Louis Art Museum Chief Diversity Officer. Followed by a facilitated discussion, led by Matthew Fluharty, Director of Art of the Rural, on how and in what ways organizations advance our understanding of the ways race, water and art intersect in the Americas? Can we unpack what marine art is, and maybe more importantly, what can it be, by centering Black and Indigenous narratives around water?
7p | Riverfront Concert and Barbeque
Featured Presenters
Geoff K. Ward
Geoff Ward is Professor of African and African American Studies and faculty affiliate in the Department of Sociology and American Culture Studies Program at Washington University in St. Louis. He is director of the WashU & Slavery Project, a university initiative in partnership with the global consortium of Universities Studying Slavery. Professor Ward's scholarship has broadly focused on the intersection of race, crime and justice and has won support from institutions including the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Justice, the Ford Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. In addition to numerous research articles and essays, he is the author of The Black Child-Savers: Racial Democracy and Juvenile Justice (University of Chicago Press, 2012), an award-winning book on the contested history and haunting remnants of Jim Crow juvenile justice. His current research examines histories and legacies of racialized violence and their reparative implications, including the role of anti-racist "memory work" in transitional justice processes.
Rooted in the black sociological tradition, Professor Ward has been committed to an engaged academic practice, combining traditional scholarship with organizing and creative work including archive development, exhibition curation, podcasting, and digital projects to engage broader audiences, support innovation in teaching, and facilitate the visibility, use and impact of research. He has served on the national advisory board for Monument Lab’s National Monument Audit, and is a member of the Mayor's Commemorative Landscape Taskforce in Clayton, MO, and the Reparative Justice Coalition of St. Louis, a network of volunteers working with Equal Justice Initiative to address legacies of racist violence in the region.
Renée Brummell Franklin
Renée Brummell Franklin, Chief Diversity Officer at the Saint Louis Art Museum, champions policies and programs to foster a more inclusive institution. Since 1998, she has led efforts to build sustainable relationships with diverse communities, ensuring broad engagement with arts and culture. She has shaped the Museum’s community engagement strategies, implementing signature programs such as the Advancing Change Diversity Summit, Art with Us Art Community Residencies, and Kwanzaa Celebrations.
She also transformed the Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellowship into a nationally recognized model for training early-career arts professionals. Renée believes in the power of arts and culture to challenge institutional inequities and create meaningful entry points for diverse communities to think critically and creatively through cultural, educational, and social partnerships. She serves on boards and committees, including Sister Cities International, Gateway Korea Foundation, the Visionary Awards, and World Trade Center St. Louis. She is co-president of Missouri–Senegal Sister Cities, Missouri’s State Representative for Sister Cities International, and President of the National Alliance of African American Art Support Groups, which she co-founded. Renée has been recognized with honors, including YMCA Leaders of Distinction, the Grand Center Visionary Award, and a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant for African urban poverty alleviation. She previously worked for several Fortune 100 companies. She holds a Master’s in Education and an MBA from Webster University. A passionate traveler, she is committed to learning and sharing international cultures.