Bridget Cooks honored for work on African American art history

Bridget Cooks will get the first James A. Porter & David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History for “Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans & the American Art Museum.” An associate professor of art history and African American studies at UC Irvine, Cooks is being recognized for her original research and scholarly work done on historical subjects in relation to African American visual culture. Her book, published in 2011, analyzes important exhibitions of African American art and how they were received. The award  will be presented Thursday, April 11, by the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts & Culture of African Americans & the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park. Established in 2001, the center is committed to collecting, documenting and presenting African American art as well as replenishing and expanding the field.