Tyrone Maurice Adderley Lecture Series
We invite artists of diverse backgrounds and identities to MassArt to share their work and discuss their motivations and perspectives on artmaking.
The Office of Justice, Equity, & Transformation, Academic Affairs, and Center for Art & Community Partnerships are guiding the Tyrone Maurice Adderley lectures into the next generation. We renew our focus to elevate a platform for artists, scholars, and thinkers identified from the African diaspora to help us live our values in pursuit of a just, compassionate, and equitable learning environment.
About the Tyrone Maurice Adderley Lecture Series
Content warning: reference to suicide, mental health resources below
In response to a tragedy, Massachusetts College of Art and Design made a commitment to increasing its recognition of multiple viewpoints and the presentation of artists outside the mainstream. The suicide of Tyrone Maurice Adderley, a talented and popular painting student, provided a catalyst. In his memory, faculty organized a lecture series to bring artists from underrepresented groups to give an honorary lecture to share their work and wisdom.
In 1995 Lorraine O’Grady gave the inaugural Tyrone Maurice Adderley Lecture. Over the past two decades members of the MassArt community have been privileged to meet and learn from artists, writers, scholars, and activists each year. These lectures have been consistently excellent but, more importantly, they have transformed MassArt and the profound influences of speakers past still reverberate in the halls and curricula of the school.
Mental Health Resources
Available to all MassArt students
Available to all MassArt students. Call (617) 879-7760 and press 1 to reach the 24/7 Support Line
Text line staffed 9:00am-9:00pm by trained peers ages 18 - 26
24/7 text line for students of color
Text or message on What's App
Tyrone Maurice Adderley Lecture Series Logo
To underscore the importance of the annual Tyrone Maurice Adderley Lecture to the MassArt community, this year’s committee commissioned a logo for the series. Created by Alumni, designer Hannah Briggs, ’22, the logo utilizes a symbol frequently used in Tyrone’s paintings while the typeface symbolizes breaking barriers in service of new pathways.
- 2023: Vision & Justice with Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
- 2022: Public Art: The Mystery, The Magic, And The Making Featuring GN Crew Boston and Street Theory
- 2019: Dr. Cornel West
- 2018: For Freedoms Town Hall: Freedom of Speech and Public Art – Steve Locke ’01, Sabrina Dorsainvil ’12, Kate Gilbert, Stephen Hamilton ’09, & Sneha Shrestha (aka IMAGINE).
- 2018: Andres Serrano
- 2017: Then, Now, Tomorrow: Change & Racial Equity on Campus & Beyond featuring the 2016 Bostonians of the Year, Kylie Webster-Cazeau and Meggie Noel
- 2017: Dr. Carole Boyce Davies
- 2016: Panel Discussion of The Battle at Versailles featuring Stephen Burrows, fashion designer; model Alva Chinn and Pat Cleveland; Deborah Riley Draper, director; and moderated by MassArt Professor James Mason
- 2016: Zanele Muholi
- 2016: Whitfield Lovell
- 2015: Clennon King
- 2015: Wangechi Mutu
- 2014: Winfred Rembert
- 2013: Alison Saar
- 2012: Dulce Pinzón
- 2011: Cornelius Eady
- 2010: Dr. Robert Farris Thompson
- 2009: Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims
- 2008: Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry
- 2007: Xenobia Bailey
- 2006 Renée Cox
- 2005: Danny Simmons
- 2004: Amiri Baraka
- 2003: Arthur Jafa
- 2002: Chakaia Booker
- 2001: Willie Birch
- 2000: Richard Mayhew
- 1999: Dr. Sharon Patton
- 1998: Dr. Lorenzo Pace
- 1997: John Scott & Dr. Edmund Barry Gaither
- 1996: Melvin Edwards & Fred Wilson
- 1995: Lorraine O’Grady
