Angela L. Flagg, APR, Chief Communications Officer
804.692.3653, angela.flagg@lva.virginia.gov
Library of Virginia Book Talk Explores the History of the Belgian Friendship Building at Virginia Union University
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA – The Library of Virginia will present a free noon talk on Thursday, March 19, by art historians Dr. Katherine M. Kuenzli and Dr. Kathleen James-Chakraborty on their latest book, “The Belgian Friendship Building: From the New York World’s Fair to a Virginia HBCU.” They will be joined in the discussion by preservation architect and historian Arthur J. Clement.
Registration is required at https://lva-virginia.libcal.com/event/16033735. A book signing will follow the talk.
The book explains how the Belgian Friendship Building, originally constructed for the 1939 New York World’s Fair—and one of only a few surviving buildings from the celebrated exhibition— ended up on the campus of Virginia Union University, a historically Black university in Richmond. The structure’s original purposes—to present modern Belgian design and to extol its racist, colonial regime—stand in stark contrast to its dedication in 1941 to Robert L. Vann, longtime editor of one of America’s most illustrious historic Black newspapers.
Kuenzli is a professor and chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Wesleyan University. Her publications on modernist art and design range from French Impressionism and Belgian Art Nouveau to German Expressionism and the Bauhaus.
James-Chakraborty is a professor of art history at the University College Dublin. She has written widely on modern German architecture, including the Bauhaus, and about global and feminist approaches to the history of architecture.
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