Jo-Ann Morgan

Elegy For Elijah

Quilting and applique

"My work is a commentary on contemporary events that trouble me. I view art-making as activism. Through my work I offer a point of view that can, hopefully, prompt a viewer to consider topics related to social justice and inequality." — Jo-Ann Morgan

About the artist

Jo-Ann Morgan

American

Jo-Ann Morgan is Professor Emerita of African American Studies and Art History, Western Illinois University. She authored The Black Arts Movement and the Black Panther Party in American Visual Culture (2019) and Uncle Tom’s Cabin as Visual Culture (2007), winner of the Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship in 2008. Prior to becoming a scholar of African American art and culture, Morgan received an MFA in Studio Art (University of Wyoming) and a PhD in Art History (UCLA). In 2020 Morgan reestablished a full-time studio practice. Since then, her work has received numerous awards and has been shown in over twenty solo exhibitions at community art centers and at colleges and universities throughout the country. A retrospective of thirty artworks, titled “The Mourning After,” was mounted at the Franklin Burroughs and Simeon Chapin Art Museum, Myrtle Beach, SC in 2026.