Reframing Blackness- Talk and Q&A 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.

If you are attending and require BSL interpretation, please notify us by emailing whitworth.events@manchester.ac.uk by Thursday 19 February.

Alayo Akinkugbe will give a talk, followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of her book will be available to purchase.

📅 Thursday 5 March 2026

⏰ 6:30pm - 8pm (doors open 6pm)

📍the Whitworth, Grand Hall

🎟️ Book your free tickets now

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‘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.

This is the rescheduled 23 October 2025 Q&A

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.