PULLMAN–The Department of Women’s Studies at Washington State University has named Faith Ringgold the Jo Hockenhull Distinguished Visiting Lecturer for 2006/2007. Ringgold will talk about 40 years of art, activism, and life. Her appearance February 21 will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Smith Center for Undergraduate Education on the Pullman campus. The room has not been determined. The event is free of charge and open to the public.
A painter, writer, speaker, mixed media sculptor and performance artist, Ringgold is professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, where she taught art from 1987 until 2002. Ringgold lives and works in Englewood, N.J.
The Jo Hockenhull Distinguished Visiting Lecturer series was launched in 1996 by the women’s studies department to honor Jo Hockenhull, a WSU professor emeritus of fine arts who served as director of women’s studies for more than a decade. “At WSU, Jo Hockenhull focused on building programs and initiatives supporting diversity, the liberal arts, free speech and critical thinking,” said Noël Sturgeon, chair of women’s studies.
“There are so many elements of the Faith Ringgold selection which support the decision to name her the Jo Hockenhull Distinguished Visiting Lecturer,” Sturgeon said. “Like Jo, Ringgold is a renowned artist who uses her talents to call attention to issues related to social imbalance and diversity. It seems doubly appropriate that Ringgold will be on campus during February, Black History Month.”
Ringgold, known to many for her award-winning children’s book “Tar Beach,” has written and illustrated a total of 14 children’s books. Her work has been exhibited around the world and is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the National Museum of American Art. An exhibit of Ringgold’s work is planned for the Jundt Gallery at Gonzaga University from Dec. 15 through April 22. According to Sturgeon, plans are pending for an organized group outing from the WSU campus to the gallery in Spokane.
Ringgold is the recipient of more than 75 awards, including 18 honorary doctor of fine arts degrees. She has received fellowships and grants that include National Endowment for the Arts Awards for sculpture (1978) and for painting (1989), the La Napoule Foundation Award for painting in France (1990), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for painting (1987), the New York Foundation for the Arts Award for painting (1988), the American Association of University Women for travel to Africa (1976) and the Creative Artists Public Service Award for painting (1971).
Ringgold’s recent painting series includes “The American Collection” (1997), a series of painted story quilts in which Ringgold undertakes to rewrite African American art history. This series is an extension of Ringgold’s “French Collection,” which she began in Paris and the south of France in 1990. Many of these works were included in a traveling exhibition curated by the New Museum of Contemporary Art titled “Faith Ringgold: Dancing at the Louvre and Other Story Quilts.” The theme of freedom and resilience is the common thread that runs through the “Coming to Jones Road Series, Part 1” (1999–2000). In this series images of escaped slaves are moving through distant and colorful landscapes to a newfound freedom and home.
Ringgold’s public commissions include “Flying Home: Harlem Heroes and Heroines,” two 25-foot mosaic murals installed on the uptown and downtown platforms of the 125th Street Independent Rapid Transit (7th Avenue IRT) subway station in New York City in 1996; “The Crown Heights Children’s Story Quilt,” featuring folklore from the 12 major cultures that settled Crown Heights, installed in the library at PS 90 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; and “Eugenio María de Hostos: A Man and His Dream” (1994), a mural celebrating the life of Eugenio María de Hostos for De Hostos Community College in the Bronx, installed in the atrium of the college.
Jo Hockenhull Lecturers have been visual artists, writers, poets, performance artists and others dedicated to issues of social justice. Former Hockenhull Lecturers include Anna Chavez, Yong Soon Min, Coco Fusco, Octavia Butler and the Guerrilla Girls, a lively, humorous and controversial performance group dedicated to exposing issues of discrimination in the art, film and theater worlds.
