Join us for the Center for African Studies’ Centering Africa Annual Lecture, a signature platform that highlights the work and intellectual contributions of leading figures shaping African and diasporic scholarship and practice. This year’s lecture, The Arts of Africa: A Living Archive, will feature Natasha Becker, the inaugural Curator of African Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

In this lecture, Becker will share her transhistorical curatorial approach to African art, exploring how exhibitions and collections might be shaped by heritage, care, and relationality rather than institutional taxonomies. Engaging contemporary artists, The Living Archive foregrounds themes of ancestral presence, material memory, performative ecologies, and social space, inviting audiences into an immersive, nonlinear, and deeply contextual experience.

This event will be held in person and streamed virtually. RSVP is required to attend.
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Natasha Becker is the inaugural Curator of African Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, where she leads the museum’s growing collection and curates exhibitions that bring contemporary African artists into dialogue with historical traditions. Since 2020, she has reenergized the Arts of Africa gallery with innovative exhibitions such as Lhola Amira: Facing the Future and Leilah Babirye: We Have a History, each exploring how today’s artists critically engage with African art legacies. 
Becker has also expanded the collection with works by influential figures, including Esther Mahlangu, Yinka Shonibare, Elias Sime, and William Kentridge, alongside rising voices such as Leilah Babirye, Ranti Bam, and Wendimagegn Belete. A respected voice in the field, Becker is deeply committed to mentorship, guiding museum fellows, graduate students, and emerging professionals. She serves on the advisory group for Nexus/Black Art Week at the Museum of the African Diaspora and contributes regularly to the Fine Arts Museums Magazine, exhibition catalogues, and artist monographs. An active public speaker, she has presented at institutions such as the Neuberger Museum, LACMA, and Stanford University, and is a member of both the Arts Council of the African Studies Association and the Association of Art Museum Curators. Becker holds a Master’s degree in History from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and pursued graduate coursework in art history at Binghamton University, New York.

"We gratefully acknowledge support from the Ruth K. Franklin Lecture and Symposium Fund."