An Artist’s View through the Lens of Race and Gender

How can Bahá’í artists address the nature and complexity of social barriers that must be understood with clarity to build vital communities? Is bearing creative witness to the subject of social justice an act of devotion? Is not the attempt to examine the status quo in regard to racial justice and gender equality the work of those charged with building the world anew? These are questions my work represents and I offer it for consideration to examining the role artists can play in response to Bahá’u’lláh’s exhortation to “be anxiously concerned with the exigencies and requirements of the age.”

  • Paula Henderson

    I have both an academic and professional background. My graduate work at the University of Chicago was an MFA studio and seminar program with a focus on issues of race. I have taught academic courses on art history and critical thinking in contemporary art as a professor at The School of the Art Institute Chicago. I managed the Chicago Baha'i Youth Workshop performing before audiences on the topics of race unity and gender equality for ten years. My exhibition record demonstrates this focus.

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48th Annual Conference

The views expressed in this recording are those of the presenter and do not necessarily represent the views of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, nor the authoritative explications of Bahá’í writings.