探花楼

1994 Inductee
Arts

Alvia J. Wardlaw, a teacher and curator nationally recognized in the classroom and showroom, is a leading expert on African-American art and history. Her photographs are exhibited throughout Texas.

In 1994 she was assistant professor of Art History at Texas Southern University, adjunct curator of African-American Art at the Dallas Museum of Art and guest curator/research fellow at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

Ms. Wardlaw also served as the curator of the Barbara Jordan Archives and the Gallery of Traditional African Art at Texas Southern University. She was Associate Curator of Primitive Art and Education at the History of Fine Arts and served on the Advisory Board of the National Black Arts Festival.

Exhibitions to her credit include 鈥淗aiti and Belize: Photographs of Earlie Hudnell,鈥� at Texas Southwestern University and Benteler-Morgan Galleries; 鈥淏lack Art: Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African American Art,鈥� at the Dallas Museum of Art; 鈥淛ohn Biggers: Bridges,鈥� at the California Museum of African-American Life and Culture; 鈥淗omecoming: African-American Family History in Georgia,鈥� for the African-American Family History Association; 鈥淐eremonies and Visions: The Art of John Biggers,鈥� at Laguna Gloria Art Museum; 鈥淩oy DeCarava: Photographs,鈥� at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts; and 鈥淧hotographs from the Wellesley College Connections,鈥� at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

Besides writing numerous publications and publishing poetry in Black Scholar, a journal, Wardlaw acted as a moderator for 鈥淩esearch in African-American Folk Art鈥� at the African-American Museums Association National Conference, and has lectured on 鈥淎frican-American Art and Postmodernism鈥� at the Hirshorn Museum.

Among Wardlaw鈥檚 honors and awards are the Margaret Kawkins National Arts Award; Best Exhibition of 1990 for 鈥淏lack Art; Ancestral Legacy,鈥� by D Magazine; Fulbright Fellow, West Africa; Compton Danforth Fellow; Ford Foundation Fellow, New York University; Award of Merit, University of Texas at Austin; and recognition by the American Association for State and Local History for the exhibition 鈥淗omecoming: African-American Family History in Georgia.鈥�