Illustrator Chosen as Africana Artist-in-Residence; Higgins Bond To Offer Student, Faculty and Public Talks

Nationally acclaimed artist and illustrator Barbara Higgins Bond will serve as the 2012 Africana Artist-in-Residence at UNC Charlotte. During her residency from Feb. 13 to Feb. 17, Higgins Bond will participate in a student-focused seminar titled, “Interrogating Self: Redemption of Memory and Meaning in My Art” on Feb. 16 from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. in Fretwell 202. She will lead a faculty seminar on “The Place of Visual Arts in the Africana Studies Curriculum” on Feb. 15 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. in Garinger 113.  Reservations for the faculty and student events are required, at 704-687-2371 or Africana_Studies@uncc.edu.

She also will deliver a free public talk, “The Making of National Icons: African-Americans on Postage Stamps,” on Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. in Fretwell Building, Room 113.  Information on visitor parking can be found at http://pats.uncc.edu.

“Higgins Bond is an accessible everyday artist,” said Akin Ogundiran, chair of the Africana Studies Department in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. “Yet, her creative oeuvre has profoundly influenced us through books and magazines, postage stamps, and through those recesses of visualscapes around us.

“For close to 40 years, she has consistently demonstrated the communicative power of iconography in self-reflection and self-understanding at the national and international levels,” Ogundiran said. “Her residency will enrich our curriculum and raise new awareness about the intersections of the arts and Africana Studies.”

A native of Little Rock, AR, Higgins Bond earned her bachelor of fine arts from Memphis College of Art. She has received prestigious honors including a medal of honor from then-Governor Bill Clinton. She has had exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago. She is the illustrator of three stamps for the United States Postal Service and four stamps for the United Nations Postal Administration. Some of the largest collector plate companies have published her original images.

Higgins Bond’s clients include such notable names as The Bradford Exchange, McGraw-Hill, The Franklin Mint, NBC, Hennessy Cognac, Anheuser-Busch, Frito-Lay, and Columbia House.  She has illustrated more than 37 books for children and adults.  She is also an adjunct professor of illustration at the Nossi College of Art in Nashville, where she lives.

The Africana Studies Department, in collaboration with the College of Arts + Architecture and with the support of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, initiated the Africana Artist-In-Residence program in 2009. The program’s goal is to showcase the work of artists and art critics whose original perspectives and creative energy advance a deep understanding of the experiences of Africana peoples worldwide. Previous resident artists in the program were T.J. Reddy, visual artist and civil rights activist (2009), Tayo Aluko, an award-winning soloist and singer known for his work on Paul Robeson (2010), and John Perpener III, a dancer, dance historian and scholar.