Ways of Looking
Join cultural researcher, producer, and writer Dr. Melaine Ferdinand-King for an interactive, conversational experience looking closely at a work of art. Participants will observe details, make connections, and discuss interpretations as a way to build understanding in this relaxed exploration. Ways of Looking is a program series that offers new perspectives on art and design uncovered through guided conversation.
Free with museum admission. Registration for this in-person program is requested.
This program is free with admission. You can pay in advance or day-of when you arrive. Museum members and artists members, along with college & university member institutions’ students, faculty, and staff, always receive free admission. Check for your college here. Learn more about Museum membership options here.
Melaine Ferdinand-King is a cultural researcher, producer, and curator whose work moves between institutions, communities, and archives. She holds a PhD in Africana Studies from Brown University, where her dissertation "Afrosurrealism and The Art of Black Wayfinding" explores the intersections of the surreal and Black consciousness in the West. Through critical writing, exhibition-making, and workshop facilitation, she forages for thought in the ever-capacious field of Black Studies. Her curatorial practice reveals an eye attuned to both emerging voices and tradition, from co-founding "The Black Biennial" at Rhode Island School of Design, to sonic projects at FADA Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ferdinand-King's approach treats cultural production as generative force rather than fixed object or static display. Her programming attends to questions of civic imagination and counterculture, creating spaces where art becomes a site for community dialogue and collective reckoning with sociopolitical ideas. Her writing appears in catalogs and publications including Boston Art Review, Black Joy Archive, and Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute.