The Reading Room

The reading room is where I live. It’s where all of the things I can’t experience first hand reside. I…

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Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania
The Illuminated Body
Philadelphia, PA
February 17 – May 21, 2024

Wichita Art Museum
The Illuminated Body
Wichita, KS
October 8, 2023 – January 14, 2024

King County Metro Transit I-90 Judkins Park Link Light Rail Station
Public Commission
Seattle, WA
2023

Yale University
Public Commission
Grace Hopper College commemorative commission.
New Haven, CT
Fall 2022

Image: Cinderella Redressed, Hand-cut Tyvek, 2021.

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Barbara Earl Thomas is a seasoned lecturer on art and contemporary American culture and keynote speaker

Keynotes & Lectures Clients

Anderson Ranch, Lecture Series, 2023
Cornish Lecture Series, Making a Mark, 2023
Curator’s Forum, Keynote Conversation, 2020
Crocker Museum of Art, Sacramento, CA, 2019
Black Mountain College, Asheville, NC, 2018
National Education Association, Seattle, WA 2018
Seattle Public Library, Jacob Lawrence Lecture, Seattle, WA, 2017
Columbia University School of Law, The Art of Visual Persuasion, 2016
Facebook, Seattle’s Black Cultural Map, Seattle Corporate office, 2016
Martin Luther King Day, Key Note, Seattle Colleges, 2015
Seattle Audubon Society, “Nature Belongs to Us All,” Lecture, 2015
Path for Art, Key Note, Seattle, WA, 2014
Pecha Kucha presentations: Seattle Art Museum, Elle, 2013
“Telling Stories,” Bellevue Arts Museum, 2013
Cornish College of the Arts, lecture, “Visual Culture: Ways of Seeing,” 2012
League of Women Voters, Annual Meeting, “The Creative Process and the Responsibilities of Freedom,” 2004

Writing Clients

The Illuminated Body, catalogue, Chrysler Art Museum, 2023
Geography of Innocence, catalogue,  Seattle Art Museum, 2020
Jacob Lawrence Struggle Series, catalogue Peabody Essex, Salem, MA, 2020
Looking for George, La Nordo, A Seattle Art Journal, Seattle WA, 2015
What to Do in the Rain, The Mail, Short Story, 826 Anthology, Seattle WA, 2013
Vital Signs, Joe Fedderson, essay introduction, University of Washington Press, 2008
Faith and the Ultimatum, Journal for Social Justice, Law Journal, Seattle University, 2005
Meditation on the Word House, Arcade Magazine, Seattle, 2004
Never Late for Heaven: Co-authored monograph on the life and work of Gwen Knight Lawrence, University of Washington Press, 2003
Sweet Hope Waiting, The Gift of Birds: True Encounters,Travelers Tales, 2000
Making a Place: The Art of Julie Speidel, art catalogue essay, Idaho, 1999
Together in the World: Art Catalogue Essay on the Life of Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Bumbershoot, Seattle Arts Festival 1999
Storm Watch: The Art of Barbara Earl Thomas, The University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1998
Making Peace, essay in The Spirit of the Canyon, Katherine Jo Ryan, Ed., and NorthLand Press Arizona, 1998
Intersections, catalogue essay in Civil Progress: Life in Black America, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, 1997