Museums as Systems 2026
June 27, 1:00 – 7:00 p.m.
The Stoop, Studio Museum in Harlem
144 W 125th St. New York, NY, 10027.
Museums as Systems 2026 explores the idea of “Black study” as both a method and a practice. Black study is an expansive term for how knowledge is produced, held, and shared among and within the diaspora. This year’s panel discussions consider the power and possibility of Black study, looking to ultimately challenge extractive models of interpretation and engagement. The program centers forms of study that are collective and grounded in lived experience, inspired and influenced by Black art and Black culture.
Panel 1: Black Study in Labor
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
This panel explores Black Study as an alternative mode of knowledge production and exchange rooted in struggles for liberation. The panelists discuss Black Study as a critique of Western knowledge systems shaped by histories of exploitation, empire, and war. Informed by legacies of artist-led and workers’ schools, it considers how artists, educators, and cultural workers engage in communal labor to build consciousness, dismantle hierarchies, and support collective power.
Register for this panel here.
Panel 2: Black Study in Editing
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Focusing on editing as a collaborative and often invisible form of cultural labor, this panel centers Black study as a framework for understanding how editors shape language, mediate meaning, and influence public discourse. Panelists will discuss editing as a practice of collective meaning-making across artistic and institutional contexts.
Register for this panel here.
Panel 3: Black Study in Scoring
5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
This session explores how Black poetics can reorganize the sensory and social structures of museums, and asks what lessons from poetry can help institutions frame images and archives. Drawing from artistic, musical, and choreographic traditions, participants will consider the practice of “scoring an image”: translating visual material into instructions, sounds, or poetic fragments that invite repetition, variation, and collective activation rather than fixed interpretation.
Register for this panel here.
Museums as Systems 2026
June 27, 1:00 – 7:00 p.m.
The Stoop, Studio Museum in Harlem
144 W 125th St. New York, NY, 10027.
Museums as Systems 2026 explores the idea of “Black study” as both a method and a practice. Black study is an expansive term for how knowledge is produced, held, and shared among and within the diaspora. This year’s panel discussions consider the power and possibility of Black study, looking to ultimately challenge extractive models of interpretation and engagement. The program centers forms of study that are collective and grounded in lived experience, inspired and influenced by Black art and Black culture.
Panel 1: Black Study in Labor
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
This panel explores Black Study as an alternative mode of knowledge production and exchange rooted in struggles for liberation. The panelists discuss Black Study as a critique of Western knowledge systems shaped by histories of exploitation, empire, and war. Informed by legacies of artist-led and workers’ schools, it considers how artists, educators, and cultural workers engage in communal labor to build consciousness, dismantle hierarchies, and support collective power.
Register for this panel here.
Panel 2: Black Study in Editing
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Focusing on editing as a collaborative and often invisible form of cultural labor, this panel centers Black study as a framework for understanding how editors shape language, mediate meaning, and influence public discourse. Panelists will discuss editing as a practice of collective meaning-making across artistic and institutional contexts.
Register for this panel here.
Panel 3: Black Study in Scoring
5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
This session explores how Black poetics can reorganize the sensory and social structures of museums, and asks what lessons from poetry can help institutions frame images and archives. Drawing from artistic, musical, and choreographic traditions, participants will consider the practice of “scoring an image”: translating visual material into instructions, sounds, or poetic fragments that invite repetition, variation, and collective activation rather than fixed interpretation.
Register for this panel here.
The Stoop, Studio Museum in Harlem
144 W 125th St. New York, NY, 10027.