Reframing Blackness - In Conversation with Alayo Akinkugbe

Hear about the original and wide-ranging riposte to the current understanding of Blackness in Western art and museums, from up-and-coming art historian and founder of @ABlackHistoryOfArt, Alayo Akinkugbe.

Since the inception of mainstream art history, Blackness has been distinctly ignored.

In Reframing Blackness, art historian and founder of @ABlackHistoryOfArt, Alayo Akinkugbe challenges this void.

Exploring the presentation of Black figures in Western art, as well as Blackness in museums, in feminist art movements and in the curriculum, Alayo unveils an overlooked but integral part of our collective art history.

Refreshing and accessible, this promises to start a much-needed conversation in culture and education.

Alayo Akinkugbe will be in conversation with The Whitworth’s Curatorial Fellow, Sophia Harari followed by an Audience Q&A. Copies of the book will be available to purchase.

📅 Thursday 23 October 2025

⏰ 6:30pm - 8pm (doors open 6pm)

📍the Whitworth, Grand Hall

🎟️ Book your free tickets now

🌟Donations help us to present world-class events and exhibitions for free. Please consider making a donation with your ticket if you can.

‘Akinkugbe is a brilliant new writer and thinker challenging art history. This book is urgent, essential, accessible and it needs to be on every art history reading list.' Bernardine Evaristo

Alayo Akinkugbe graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA in History of Art in 2021 and graduated with an MA in Curating the Art Museum from the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2023. She runs the Instagram platform @ABlackHistoryofArt, which highlights Black artists, sitters, curators and thinkers from art history and the present day; and hosts the podcast A Shared Gaze. Alayo is a contributing editor and writes the column ‘Black Gazes’ for AnOther Magazine. She was awarded a curatorial research grant by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art for the exhibition Entangled Pasts: Art Colonialism and Change at the Royal Academy of Arts. Alayo was on the advisory panel and contributed to the book African Artists: From 1882 to Now, published by Phaidon in 2021, and has written for publications including Dazed, Tate Etc. and The World of Interiors. Reframing Blackness is her first book.

Sophia Harari is a curator, thinker and artist exploring the intersections of archive, storytelling and memory. As a Frieze X Deutsche Bank Curatorial Fellow, Sophia is completing their fellowship at The Whitworth with a focus on the ABC Wax Archive. This placement is an opportunity to research the ways in which archives of shared history can find meaning in an institution. How the stories associated with collection can feed into the ways in which people engage with a public archive.

About the venue

The Whitworth is an accessible venue with facilities to support you during your visit, and alongside this our visitor team will be on hand to assist you in the gallery. Find out more about planning your visit to the Whitworth and accessibility information for you. If you’d like to speak to a team member about any access or additional needs, please get in touch with the gallery and we will be happy to assist you. Contact: whitworth@manchester.ac.uk or telephone: 0161 275 7450.