STANFORD, CA.- The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University presents "Contemporary Art from Africa," the 2009 Ruth K. Franklin Symposium for Arts of Africa, Oceania, & the Americas, on Saturday, March 21, from 10 am until 5 pm. The general public is welcome to the symposium. Admission is free. The symposium includes five distinguished speakers, listed here with the titles of the talks:

Barbara Thompson, Phyllis Wattis Curator of the Arts of Africa and the Americas, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University; "How Did We Get Here / Are We There Yet?"

Elizabeth Harney, Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Graduate Department of Art, University of Toronto; "Between the Modern and the Contemporary?"

Sidney Littlefield Kasfir, Professor of African Art History, Art History Department, Emory University; "Swimming Against the Current or Falling Off the Cliff? Ugandan Artists and Their Fragile Connections to a Transculturated and Transitory Artworld"
Simon Njami, Independent Curator; "What Is Africa?"

Thembinkosi A. Goniwe, Artist and Ph.D. candidate, History of Art Department, Cornell University; "Short Notes: Intimacy, Pleasure, Play . . . Contemporary African Art"

“The symposium is being held at Annenberg Auditorium, Nathan Cummings Art Building, on the Stanford campus. It begins with coffee at 9:30-10 am. Seating is open, with no reservations. For further information, call 650-725-3155 or visit museum.stanford.edu.

Ruth Franklin was the first Phyllis Wattis Curator for the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Cantor Arts Center. Franklin's curatorial work significantly strengthened the Cantor Arts Center collection. In 2002, an anonymous donor endowed the Ruth K. Franklin Fund for Lectures and Symposia in the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Memorial gifts from numerous donors also supported the Franklin Fund, which makes possible an annual lecture or symposium in perpetuity. The Center presented the first Ruth K. Franklin Symposium in 2003.