The Collecting of African American Art XI: The Wedge Collection

March 2014 - Maria Kanellopoulos, collection-manager and exhibition coordinator, Wedge Curatorial Projects; Kenneth Montague, collector, curator, and director, Wedge Curatorial Projects; and Trevor Schoonmaker, chief curator and Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Kenneth Montague is a Toronto-based art collector and the founder and director of Wedge Curatorial Projects. Created in 1997, Wedge evolved from a commercial gallery into a nonprofit organization, exhibiting photo-based work with a strong focus on exploring black identity and the African diaspora. Wedge has collaborated with local and international institutions to create original exhibitions, educational programming, publications, and film and music series that speak to youth about shaping their own identity. In 2011 Montague organized Becoming: Photographs from the Wedge Collection in collaboration with Trevor Schoonmaker at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. In this conversation recorded on March 9, 2014, at the National Gallery of Art as part of the Collecting of African American Art series, Montague and Schoonmaker discuss the history and mission of their individual institutions and collaborations between them. Moderated by Maria Kanellopoulos, Wedge collection-manager and exhibition coordinator, the conversation also considers the future of acquisitions, exhibitions, and scholarship of work of the African diaspora.