Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences

Aaron R. Turner and Robert Cochran - Searching the Archive: The Photographic Legacy of Geleve Grice

The Pryor Center Presents 2022-23 lecture series presented by the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences concludes Thursday, April 27, at 6:00 p.m. with "Searching the Archive: The Photographic Legacy of Geleve Grice" featuring Aaron Turner and Robert Cochran.

Turner and Cochran will open with an account of their ongoing researches into the Geleve Grice Photograph Collection, held by University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections. Turner is assistant professor of art, photography and interdisciplinary practice and director of the Center for Art As Lived Experience in Fulbright College's School of Art. Cochran is professor of English and director of Fulbright College's Center for Arkansas and Regional Studies.

Turner and Cochran will open with an account of their ongoing researches into the Geleve Grice Photograph Collection, held by University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections. In 1998 Cochran visited "Those Who Dare To Dream," an exhibit of Grice's work in the art department of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. The following year Cochran wrote "Geleve Grice: Arkansas Photographer," which appeared in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly, followed by A Photographer of Note from the University of Arkansas Press in 2003, and curated an exhibit of the same name at the Old State House in Little Rock.

And that was it for nearly two decades. Then in 2019 Turner arrived in Fayetteville.  A native Arkansan artist with training in archiving and a special interest in the region's African American photographers, Turner saw at once that Grice's archive had much more to offer.

The concluding portion of the program will feature current work being done by Turner's students. First Larissa Ramey will present "What If We Counter," which calls attention back to the Black archive, performance, installation, and fashion. Ramey's practice investigates the intersection of Black culture, archival theory, performance, and identity. She will share the process of actively participating in the archives and collaborating with her community. "What If We Counter" is about how Ramey facilitates her sources of how she carves out space for herself within art and life. 

Megan Pobywajlo will present "Switchboard as Blueprint," which looks at the former U of A student-run publication Ozark Mountain Times and their program Fayetteville Switchboard. Pobywajlo will speak about these two student-run initiatives as a blueprint and as metadata on the university (state) repression of radical voices and a local micro-community's struggle against capitalism that speaks through the archive.

Kelli Ladwig will present "Wade in the Water," which looks at the former Black community that lived in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, centered around Pilgrim's Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, which also served as a schoolhouse for the children of Tin Cup. Panoramic maps from the Eureka Springs Historical Museum Collection and the Bank of Eureka Springs Collection, Library of Congress - Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, postcards, and photos of the church members from the Eureka Springs Historical Museum archives offer a glimpse into a vanished community.

The Geleve Grice Photograph Collection is currently being processed and will be available in summer 2023 for use in the Special Collections reading room. The Pryor Center is located at 1 East Center Street, Suite 120. The event is free and open to the public, and parking is available on the Fayetteville Square.