Cheryl Finley

Distinguished Visiting Professor

Spelman College

Cheryl Finley is the Inaugural Director of the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Spelman College, and Associate Professor, Cornell University. Committed to engaging strategic partners to transform the art and culture industry, she leads an innovative undergraduate program at the world’s largest historically Black college and university consortium in preparing the next generation of African American museum and visual arts professionals. An art historian, curator and essayist, Dr. Finley is the award-winning author of Committed to Memory: The Art of the Slave Ship Icon (2018), the first in-depth study about the most famous image associated with the memory of slavery. Her writings have appeared in numerous catalogues and periodicals, including Artforum, Artnet, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, American Quarterly, and Small Axe. Her most recent curated exhibition is “Free as they want to be:” Artists Committed to Memory (Fotofocus, 2022).