Kathleen James-Chakraborty – In-person seminar at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Built for the World’s Fair held in 1939 and 1940 in New York city’s Flushing Meadow and designed by Henry van de Velde in collaboration with Victor Bourgeois and Léon Stynen, the Belgian Building was subsequently re-erected on the grounds of Virginia Union University, a historically Black institution in Richmond, Virginia, with a strong history of training African Americans professionals dedicated to advancing the cause of civil rights. The first major example of European modernism placed on a campus in the United States and a firm challenge to the city’s history of commemorating Confederate generals who fought to uphold slavery, the building could be seen as an overlooked milestone in the history of the architecture of the African American community, a status that is undercut, however, by its relationship to Belgium’s colonial ties to the Congo.

Webpage: https://www.tcd.ie/History_of_Art/research/previous-seminars.php