Past Talks & More | Artist Talks

How Do We Get Well? On Public Health and Safety

Director's Dialogue on Art and Social Change
Featuring Cameron A. Granger, Baseera Khan, Dr. Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson, and Kyle Strickland
Moderated by Autumn Glover

Virtual

The 2021 Director’s Dialogue on Art and Social Change is as timely as ever, focusing on the inextricable relationships between public safety and public health with featured speakers Cameron A. Granger, Baseera Khan, Dr. Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson, and Kyle Strickland. The conversation will be moderated by Autumn Glover and followed by a Q&A; RSVP to participate via Zoom.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Dr. Amy Acton will be unable to moderate this discussion.

This year’s panel will discuss the ever-evolving questions and demands raised by artists, activists, and public health leaders since the global COVID-19 pandemic and social justice movements ignited in 2020. From the angle of art and culture, the group will examine recent monumental shifts in civic engagement, awareness, and action surrounding structural racism, health disparities, and safety in our communities.

More about the series

Since 2006, the center's annual Director's Dialogues have explored social justice, identity politics, climate change, and health care, among other issues, with such leading cultural and academic figures as Ann Hamilton, Wil Haygood, Kerry James Marshall, Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky), Jason Moran, Anna Deavere Smith, Lynne Tillman, and Patricia Williams.

A portrait of Cameron Granger

Cameron Granger, photo courtesy of the artist.

A portrait of Baseera Khan.

Baseera Khan, photo: Benny Krown.

A portrait of Kyle Strickland.

Kyle Strickland, photo courtesy of the speaker

A portrait of Dr. Shawnita Sealy Jefferson.

Dr. Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson, photo courtesy of the speaker

A portrait of Autumn Glover against a backdrop with patterned fabric cushions

Autumn Glover

More about the speakers

Cameron A. Granger chevron-down chevron-up

Granger came up in Cleveland, Ohio, alongside his mother, Sandra, inheriting both her love of soul music and habit of apologizing too much. A 2017 residency artist at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Granger uses his work to reconcile his position as an individual shaped by and existing in American history, its media, and all of its associated violence. His recent projects include “Ten Toes Down” at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago; Pearl, a body of collaborative works with his mother at CTRL+SHFT Collective in Oakland; and “A library, for you,” a traveling community library most recently housed at ikattha project space in Bombay, India. Granger is also a featured filmmaker in the Wex’s recent Cinetracts ’20 project and frequent partner with the center’s Department of Learning & Public Practice. Read more.

Baseera Khan chevron-down chevron-up

A performance and visual artist based in Brooklyn, New York, Khan’s work sublimates colonial histories in order to map geographies of the future. The artist’s latest solo exhibition, Snake Skin, opened in late 2019 at Simone Subal Gallery, New York, and their work has shown at the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, Germany; Jenkins Johnson Projects (2019), SculptureCenter (2018), and Participant Inc. (2017) in New York; and the Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2017), among other venues. Khan recently completed a six-week performance residency at The Kitchen in New York (2020) and was an artist-in-residence at Pioneer Works (2018–19) and Abrons Art Center (2016–17). Khan received an MFA from Cornell University (2012) and a BFA from the University of North Texas (2005) and is currently featured in Climate Changing, the Wexner Center’s latest exhibition. Read more.

Dr. Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson chevron-down chevron-up

Sealy-Jefferson is a social epidemiologist and assistant professor in Ohio State’s College of Public Health whose scholarship and activism focus on systems of oppression and their impact on the health of Black families and communities. She is the founder and director of the Social Epidemiology to Eliminate Disparities (SEED) Lab, the principal investigator of the Social Epidemiology to Combat Unjust Residential Evictions (SECURE) Study, and the chair-elect of the American Public Health Association’s Epidemiology Section. Read more.

Kyle Strickland chevron-down chevron-up

Strickland is the Deputy Director of Race and Democracy at the Roosevelt Institute, a national think tank and nonprofit partner of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. As deputy director, Strickland works with experts and community leaders to advance policies that reimagine the American economy and democracy for the good of all. Currently, Strickland is leading a multiyear racial justice landscape project that will provide a historical overview and analysis of the latest research, policy ideas, and political movement-building on race, economics, and politics. In addition, Strickland is the senior legal analyst at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity and the director of My Brother’s Keeper Ohio. A native of Columbus, Strickland earned his bachelor’s degree from Ohio State and a law degree from Harvard Law School, where he served as student body president. Read more.

Autumn Glover chevron-down chevron-up

Autumn Glover is an urban planner who’s passionate about the intersection of race, place, and health. Currently she serves in a dual role with Partners Achieving Community Transformation (PACT), where she is president and a founding staff member, and Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center where, as senior director of community and civic engagement, she leads multiple projects including the development of a prevention-focused, healthy community center and an enterprise-wide health equity and anti-racism strategy. PACT is a nonprofit focused on the disruption of intergenerational poverty and the creation of a mixed-income community through strategic investments and with an emphasis on housing, education, economic impact, and health. She is responsible for the design and implementation of PACT’s award-winning community engagement process and the development of the PACT Blueprint for Community Investment. This work resulted in more than $220 million in program and capital investments, including $30 million in HUD Choice Neighborhoods Planning and Implementation grants. Glover teaches in Ohio State’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs and serves the Columbus community as a board member and volunteer through a number of organizations. Originally from Toledo, Glover lives in Columbus with her husband and daughter and holds a Master of City and Regional Planning and Master of Public Policy and Management from Ohio State.

The Wexner Center's Director's Dialogues are made possible in part by a lead endowment gift from an anonymous donor.

LEARNING AND PUBLIC PRACTICE PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
American Electric Power Foundation

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Ingram-White Castle Foundation
State Farm
Martha Holden Jennings Foundation
CoverMyMeds
PNC Foundation
Chalmers P. Wylie VA Ambulatory Care Center
Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
Greater Columbus Arts Council
Mary and C. Robert Kidder
L Brands Foundation
American Electric Power Foundation
The Columbus Foundation
Ohio Arts Council
Bill and Sheila Lambert
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Huntington
Nationwide Foundation
Adam R. Flatto
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease
Arlene and Michael Weiss

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Carol and David Aronowitz
Michael and Paige Crane
Axium Plastics
Fenwick & West LLP
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
KDC/ONE
M/I Homes
Ohio State Energy Partners
Washington Prime Group
Lisa Barton
Russell and Joyce Gertmenian
Liza Kessler and Greg Henchel
Nancy Kramer
Matrix Psychological Services
Paramount Group, Inc.
Bruce and Joy Soll
Business Furniture Installations
CASTO
E.C. Provini Co, Inc.
M-Engineering
New England Development
Our Country Home
ProAmpac

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Past Talks & More

How Do We Get Well? On Public Health and Safety