Beal takes interim lead at Diggs
(pictured above: Endia Beal)
Endia Beal, a North Carolina based artist and educator, has been named interim director of the Diggs Gallery of Winston-Salem State University effective Friday, Aug. 15.
She will fill the shoes of Belinda Tate, who is leaving WSSU to serve as the executive director of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, a nonprofit art museum and school serving Western Michigan.
“Endia Beal is an exciting and talented artist and arts professional,” said Corey D. B. Walker, dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, Business and Education. “Her appointment as interim director represents a strategic opportunity to broaden and deepen our commitment to the arts and the centrality of the Diggs Gallery to the academic mission of the university.”
Beal is internationally known for her photographic narratives and video testimonies that examine the personal, yet contemporary, stories of marginalized communities and individuals. Her work has been exhibited in several institutions including the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, the Aperture Foundation of New York and the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute also in New York.
“It is an honor to become a member of this historic institution with one of the largest collections of African and African American art,” Beal said of her appointment. “The newly renovated exhibition space serves as a symbol of our heritage and a meeting place for thought and discussion. I look forward to highlighting the tradition of our institution and becoming a hub for artists and appreciators. I also look forward to implementing interactive programs that connect the experiences of our students to the masterpieces that are displayed on our walls.”
Beal earned a dual B.A. degree in art history and studio art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During her undergraduate studies, she attended the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy where she focused on high Renaissance art history and the romance languages of the Italian culture.
Following graduation, Beal was one of four women selected nationally to participate in ArtTable, a program to promote women in the visual arts where she assisted in the curation of the Andy Warhol Exhibit at the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery of George Washington University. Beal used this experience as a platform to advocate for minority opportunities within the arts and was instrumental in creating marketing campaigns that redefined the way minority communities interact with art. Her work experiences also include the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology, and The New York Times Magazine.
In 2013, Beal graduated from Yale School of Art with a MFA degree in photography. While at Yale, she created a body of work that explores the relationship of minority women within the corporate space, fully developing her efforts during the artist-in-residence program at the Center for Photography at Woodstock. Beal aligns herself with artist such as Carrie Mae Weems and Lorna Simpson, two women who use stories as the vehicle to question conformity and gender norms. Beal is featured in several online editorials at sites like NBC.com, BET.com, the Huffington Post, Slate and the National Geographic. She also appeared in Essence and Marie Claire Magazine.
