Black Lunch Table’s (BLT) primary aim is the production of discursive sites, wherein artists and local community members engage in dialogue on a variety of critical issues. BLT mobilizes a democratic rewriting of contemporary cultural history by animating discourse around and among the people living it. First staged in 2005 at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture artist residency, the project has grown by way of contributions from and collaborations with artists, digital humanities researchers, and Wikipedians. BLT currently includes two roundtable series’, an online oral history archive, and a Wikipedia initiative. Much like its creation of physical spaces that foster community and generate critical dialogue, BLT creates a digital space for art, Black studies and social justice issues.
Black Lunch Table
Black Lunch Table Wikimedia edit-a-thon at 2019 Nashville REAL Symposium, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 2019.
Black Lunch Table Wikimedia edit-a-thon at The New School Centennial Festival, The New School, New York, NY 2019.
Black Lunch Table at the Black Artists Retreat, Chicago, 2014.
Black Lunch Table’s First Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY 2015
“The Warhol Foundation aims to support the full range of artistic activity in America—from exhibitions at major museums to neighborhood projects by artist collectives. Arts writers, through the range and specialization of their individual interests, touch upon all of this activity—illuminating and interrogating it and bringing it into conversation with the public. Support for artists is not complete without support for the circulation and serious consideration of their ideas. The Arts Writers Grant program keeps artists at the center of cultural dialogue and debate—in our opinion, right where they belong.”
Joel Wachs, President