Kathleen will deliver the lecture “The Belgian Friendship Building: From the New York World’s Fair to a Virginia HBCU,” as part of the the HAA Guest Lecture Series, sponsored by Boston University Center for the Humanities.
Thursday, 1 October 2026, with a reception at 5:00 p.m. and the lecture at 6:00 p.m. at the Howard Thurman Center Commons, Boston University, MA, USA.
Designed by a trio of eminent Belgian architects as their country’s contribution to the World’s Fair held in New York in 1939 and 1940, the Belgian Friendship Building now stands on the campus of Virginia Union, a historically Black university in Richmond, Virginia. In New York, the pre-fabricated structure, constructed entirely out of materials imported from Belgium, housed exhibitions celebrating modern Belgian design and artisanship, as well as the country’s supposed “civilising” mission in the Congo, its largest colony. In Richmond, however, where its tower became the Robert L. Vann Memorial, commemorating the editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, it served as an affirmation of African American achievement and a riposte to the Confederate memorials on nearby Monument Avenue. Here it provided educational facilities that inspired a generation of students active in the Civil Rights Movement and in national as well as local politics. The building’s complex history demonstrates the importance of including African American patronage and experience when recounting the arrival of Europe Modern architecture in the United States and particularly on its campuses.
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