“The Auburn Forum for Southern Art and Culture,” a half-day symposium, will feature acclaimed artists and scholars. It will take place the museum on South College Street at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 3.

“The Jule Collins Smith Museum is uniquely positioned to create a space for dialogue and scholarship about the art and history of the American South,” said Cindi Malinick, the museum’s executive director.

The forum aims to establish the museum as a key academic partner in the study of Southern art and culture, connected to museum exhibitions on view in 2024. It’s in line with Auburn University’s core mission of research, outreach and instruction.

“Our location in Auburn, situated at the crossroads in a region rich with arts in all forms—visual art, music, food, literature, and fashion—offers an invaluable resource for insight into the region’s complex cultural narratives,” said Malinick. “Inviting these guests to campus enriches student experiences, builds upon Auburn’s impressive scholarship, and expands the possibilities.

The afternoon program will feature one-on-one conversations between pairs, delving into themes of memory, place and agency explored in current exhibitions at the museum.

Established in honor of the museum’s 20th birthday in 2023, “The Auburn Forum for Southern Art and Culture” aspires to become an annual tradition, attracting leading scholars, artists and the public to engage in critical dialogues about the South’s rich and multifaceted artistic landscape through museum exhibitions.

“The Jule is a place where innovative scholarship centered on visual arts can be experienced in a museum setting. The Forum will contribute to vital conversations already happening across campus and throughout the region in a unique way,” said Malinick.

Special guests include MacArthur Fellow Walter Hood, Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Joe Minter, Bethany Collins and Elizabeth M. Webb.

Hood will debut 10 new oil paintings and a site-specific sculpture in “Ark of Life/Ark of Bones.”

He is a creative director and founder of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, Calif., and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Collins is a native of Montgomery, and she will exhibit her Old Ship series in “Accord.”

The pieces are cast from handmade paper mixed with granite from a destroyed monument, which will be a part of her first sculptural project to be presented by LAXART and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2025.

Webb is an artist and filmmaker and will confront the legacy of John James Audubon, examining her relationship with former plantation land near the museum in “a bearing tree is a witness; an oak is an echo.”

Dial, Holley, Lockett, and Minter will have their work featured in a group exhibition, “Black Codes: Art and Post-Civil Rights Alabama.”

The exhibition challenges long-held assumptions about what constitutes a cultural or artistic capital in the United States.

Registration for the Forum is now open. Admission is free for Auburn University students, faculty, and staff, and $25 for the general public. To register and learn more, please visit jcsm.auburn.edu/.