Identity design by Jerome Harris, image designed by Angela Lian (BU SVA Class ’21).

Join BU Art Galleries at Boston University College of Fine Arts this fall for the traveling exhibition As, Not For: Dethroning Our Absolutes, curated by Jerome Harris. The exhibition will be on view November 4, 2020, through February 19, 2021.

As, Not For aims to promote the inclusion of neglected Black designers and their developed methodologies and challenge the ubiquity of White and anti-Black aesthetics in our designed world. These practitioners are absent in too many classroom lectures, and their methods mostly invisible or uncredited in the field. 

Curator Jerome Harris describes, “The exhibit seeks to question, inspire, activate, and challenge the design community and beyond with the objective of promoting deep history, design theory, and aesthetics of African-Americans.”

Harris will be working with BU School of Visual Arts Graphic Design students Ashlie Dawkins, Gabbi Ferrari, Jay Li, Angela Lian, and Assistant Professor of Art, Mary Yang, on this iteration of the exhibition for the BU Art Galleries. The exhibition will be open to the BU community and a virtual tour will be available to the general public. Harris will also be giving a virtual lecture for BU SVA’s Tuesday Night Lecture Series on November 10 at 7:30pm EST. This lecture series is hosted by the BU School of Visual Arts MFA programs in Painting, Sculpture, and Graphic Design. 

The MFA in Graphic Design at BU provides a two-year, sequenced studio approach to advanced design thinking and problem solving for visual communication, preparing students to thrive in a dynamic, creative professional environment. Students have access to recently renovated state-of-the-art facilities as well as all that BU has to offer. Applications for Fall 2021 are now open. Learn more at bu.edu/cfa.

For lecture registration details and further information, visit bu.edu/cfa/lecture-series.