Hamza Walker: The Renaissance Society Years

Hamza Walker was Director of Education at the Renaissance Society for 20 years, between 1994 and 2015. During that time, he wrote essays about every single exhibition, both those he organized and many others curated by Suzanne Ghez. These texts were published first in the Renaissance Society’s newsletters and then eventually on the exhibition posters, which were distributed far more widely. In the course of this workman-like writing in the service of the institution, Walker developed not only his distinctive personal writing style and a keen eye, but also a theory of what museum education could be and do. In his writing, Walker draws on his art historical knowledge but looks equally to current events (both minutely local and international), insisting on the mutual relevance and related nature of the two. In Walker’s own words, “if we’re going to live up to the idea that art is for everybody, it needs a set of wider reference points,” an emphasis that has arguably shaped the identity of the institution in turn.

This book collects those essays together into a volume that celebrates Hamza’s brilliant, joyful and generous writing. It also serves as a lively record of 20 years of the Renaissance Society’s exhibition programming, and reflects the prevalent theories, issues, and fashions of the art world during that time, not to mention the events occurring in the wider world.

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