Panel discussion at Albany Museum of Art to focus on African art

ALBANY — Three Georgia museum curators will discuss the curation and exhibition of African art in the museum setting at a panel event on Oct. 24 at the Albany Museum of Art. The event, which starts at 5:30 p.m., is free and open to the public.

Albany Museum of Art Curator of African Collections and African Diasporic Art Sidney Pettice will be joined by Registrar and Curator Jane Woolard, of the Savannah African Art Museum, and curator, Arts of Africa and the African Diaspora, T.K. Smith, of the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University.

“This panel discussion is one of hopefully many that we will have here at the AMA to accompany our exhibitions,” Pettice said. “Hearing from these museum practitioners first-handallows for deep insight and a great learning experience for our visitors.”

Pettice curated “Echoes of the Past,” a comprehensive survey of African art that spans three AMA galleries and is on view at the museum through Jan 3. The exhibition includes works from the AMA permanent collection and art objects on loan from the Michael C. Carlos Museum and the Savannah African Art Museum.

Those attending the panel discussion will hear first-hand from curators about their practice and why collaborating with other institutions is essential to museum work. The trio will discuss works on loan from their institutions as well as how they produce exhibitions that focus on their African collections at their own institutions.

Pettice joined the AMA curatorial staff in late 2023. In her curatorial work, she prioritizes the expansion and further documentation of the history, culture, and traditions of the African Diaspora. She continues this practice not only through exhibitions at the AMA, but also through scholarly writing for Southern-based arts and criticism magazines, including Burnaway and Scalawag.

Smith, a curator, writer, and cultural historian, previously served as assistant curator of art of the African Diaspora at the Barnes Foundation. His recent curatorial projects include the 2025 “Mississippi Invitational: Call Home” at the Mississippi Museum of Art, “Hand to Mouth” at Stove Works, and the upcoming 2026 “Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial” at the Oregon Contemporary.

Smith has been published in exhibition catalogues, academic journals, and periodicals, including Art Papers, where he is a contributing editor. He is the recipient of an Andy Warhol Arts Writers Grant and was recently awarded the Leo and Dorothea Rabkin Prize in art writing. He has been a visiting lecturer at numerous academic and cultural institutions, including Cornell University.

Woolard graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2024 with a BFA degree in Art History and minors in Linguistics and Museum Studies. Her thesis, The Tradition of Story Telling in Gullah Contemporary Painting, focused on Gullah contemporary painting. She works at the Savannah African Art Museum as the registrar, internship supervisor, and curator. 

Registration is free. RSVP on the link at www.albanymuseum.com/event/echoes-panel/.

The Albany Museum of Art is located at 311 Meadowlark Drive, adjacent to Albany State University’s West Campus, just off Gillionville Road. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the museum is open to the public 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.  Admission is free.

For more information about the AMA please visit our website, www.albanymuseum.com, or call 229.439.8400. Be sure to follow AlbanyMuseumOfArt on Facebook and AlbanyMuseum on Instagram.

The Albany Museum of Art’s curator of African Collections and African Diasporic Art, Sidney Pettice, will be joined by curators from the Savannah African Art Museum and the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University on Oct. 24 for a panel discussion about the curation and exhibition of African art in the museum setting.Special Photo: AMA