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

Visual artist Jo-Ann Morgan is Professor Emeritus of African American Studies and Art History at Western Illinois University, and author of The Black Arts Movement and the Black Panther Party in American Visual Culture (Routledge, 2019). Her book Uncle Tom's Cabin as Visual Culture won the prestigious Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship in 2008.

Morgan was awarded a Cultural Commentary/Social Change Grant from Fiber Art Now (summer/fall 2021) for the "Lady Corona Comforter Series." She received a Weyerhaeuser Juror Award at the 2021 Great Northern Art Explosion in Grayling, MI for a stitched fabric piece called "Daddy Changed the World."

A solo show of her work, "Quilt Memorials: Saying Their Names in Fabric‚" was mounted at the Dalton Gallery of the Arts Council of York County, Rockhill, SC in February 2022. A solo show of more recent work will be exhibited at the Park Circle Gallery, North Charleston, SC in November 2022.

Among her recent group shows are: Protest Signs, University of North Carolina, Wilmington; "No Justice, No Peace‚": Global Protest, Unrest, and Conflict, James Wise Gallery, Norfolk State University; Quilts Unlimited, View Center, Old Forge, NY; The Language of Fiber Art, Kelso Art Center, University of Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX; Threads that Bind (When the Fabric of Social Culture Unravels), Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY; Art and Social Justice: Art for the People, By the People II, Ellington-White Contemporary Gallery, Fayetteville, NC; and, Fantastic Fibers 2020, Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY. An installation of banners showcased her work in Tallahassee, FL as part of the national 2021 Terrain Biennial (October 2 to November 15, 2021).