The Lockwood Thompson Dialogues began in 2006 and is an annual program funded through an endowment set up by the late Lockwood Thompson, a former trustee to the Cleveland Public Library. The program allows the Library to bring guests of national and international reputation who will come in and initiate insightful, interactive and thought-provoking conversations around topics of contemporary culture that are relevant to the public. This year, the Cleveland Public Library and the Cleveland Museum of Art are partnering to present two extraordinary African American artists, Barkley Hendricks and Kehinde Wiley.

Free; reservations recommended. Reserve tickets through the Ticket Center in person, by calling (216) 421-7350, or online.

Barkley Hendricks 

Saturday, July 25, 2:00 p.m. 

Recital Hall

Barkley L. Hendricks’ pioneered socially-conscious life-sized paintings of urban African American males during the 1960s. His prolific artwork has showcased African American portraiture within a cultural and socio-political context over several decades and has both informed and inspired the works of later contemporary artists such as Kehinde Wiley.

Kehinde Wiley 

Saturday, August 29, 2:00 p.m. 

Gartner Auditorium

Wiley has firmly established his place as a painter of grandiose portraits of young, urban, largely African American male subjects. His modern, revisionist works, turn traditional expectations of formal European portraiture on its head and casts every day individuals in both a powerful and majestic light that forces the viewer to reflect upon and reimagine historical notions of fine art