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.
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.
Available to all MassArt students
Mental Health support 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
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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.
