Tufts University’s annual Beckwith Lecture will be a conversation between exhibiting artist Sanford Biggers and Christa Clarke, independent curator/scholar, Arts of Global Africa, and affiliate, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.

The conversation is held in conjunction with the Tufts University Art Galleries exhibition “Sanford Biggers,” on view from October 8 through December 15 in the Tisch Family Gallery, Aidekman Arts Center. Organized by the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the exhibition is accompanied by a catalog a with an essay by Christa Clarke. Biggers has developed a practice that encourages meaningful dialogue around history and trauma in the United States. “Sanford Biggers” is the first exhibition focused on his BAM series, begun in 2015, in which the artist seeks to memorialize and honor unarmed black victims of police gun violence in America. Through video, sculpture and textiles, he brings to light the pain these acts have perpetrated upon society, but also points to the wider human condition and a desire to transcend.

The Beckwith Lecture was established in 1978 by Leo and Betty Beckwith to bring curators and cultural thinkers of national and international stature to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, now a part of Tufts.