PhD Candidate Tamir Williams Featured in Penn Today

Who, What, Why: Tamir Williams on Black visibility in Chicago’s nightclubs

Tamir Williams, a Ph.D. candidate in History of Art in the School of Arts & Sciences, discusses their exhibition showcasing the photographs of Wharton alumnus Michael Abramson, who captured scenes from Black nightclubs in Chicago in the 1970s.

Penn Today | by Brandon Baker | June 29, 2023

For Tamir Williams, art is a family affair.

Their grandmother was an artist, whose talents spilled over to their father. As a kid growing up in Chicago, Williams’ father taught all his children how to draw. Throughout their high school years, Williams enrolled in after-school art programs. Through the years, Williams’ curiosity expanded, exploring printmaking, acrylic painting, charcoal drawing, and more. 

But it wasn’t until they were a student at Middlebury College that they took their first art history course and developed an interest in curating. Their studies in Black art history and criticism, specifically, initially arose from reading bell hooks’s “Art on My Mind” and from reading Gwendolyn Dubois Shaw’s “Seeing the Unspeakable,” about contemporary African American painter Kara Walker. Shaw is currently their adviser as a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Arts & Sciences’ History of Art Department Ph.D. program. Williams specializes in American art and contemporary art.

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