Program on Race Relations Will Be Rescheduled
The Courageous Conversations About Race workshop that was scheduled for Saturday, July 22, at the Albany Museum of Art has been postponed after an airline today canceled the flight of one of the facilitators of the program.
“We are terribly disappointed that this session of Courageous Conversations About Race will have to be rescheduled,” AMA Director of Education and Public Programming Annie Vanoteghem said. “Dr. Gloria Wilson, one of the two educators who facilitate this program, received a last-minute cancellation notice from Delta Airlines just hours before her flight from Arizona to Georgia was scheduled to take off today. No other flights were available until Saturday, so there was no way for her to reach Albany in time for the event.
“We apologize to everyone who registered for this important workshop that promotes understanding and enables participants to discuss the difficult topics of race and racism in a safe space. This was simply a circumstance that was beyond our control.”
Vanoteghem said she will work with Wilson and co-facilitator Sara Scott Shields, Ph.D., to schedule a new date for the workshop, which uses art as a catalyst for the discussions.
“We are attempting to reach out to everyone who registered,” she said. “Once we have a new date set, we ask those who have registered for this session to confirm whether they still plan to attend. If any spaces open because someone is unable to attend on the new date, we will reopen registration for those spaces.”
Begun in 2018, Courageous Conversations About Race sessions are conducted periodically at the AMA. Wilson, Assistant Professor, Art & Visual Culture Education at the University of Arizona, Chair of the Committee on Multiethnic Concerns, National Art Education Association, and Co-Director of Arizona Arts, Racial Justice Studio, and Shields, Art Education Associate Professor and Department Chair at Florida State University, have facilitated each of the workshops.
“Drs. Wilson and Shields are a powerful team, and this simply isn’t a program that can be successfully conducted virtually,” Vanoteghem said.
Courageous Conversations About Race is a free program thanks to generous support from the United Way of Southwest Georgia through its Reimagine Albany Initiative.
Information on rescheduling this session will be posted on the AMA website and on the museum’s social media accounts as soon as it is available.
