The Umuse Team

Dr. Alvia J. Wardlaw

University Museum Director & Curator

Alvia J. Wardlaw, a teacher and curator nationally recognized in the classroom and showroom, is a leading expert on African-American art and history. Her photographs are exhibited throughout Texas.
Besides writing numerous publications and publishing poetry in Black Scholar, a journal, Wardlaw acted as a moderator for “Research in African-American Folk Art” at the African-American Museums Association National Conference, and has lectured on “African-American Art and Postmodernism” at the Hirshorn Museum.

Among Wardlaw’s honors and awards are the Margaret Kawkins National Arts Award; Best Exhibition of 1990 for “Black Art; Ancestral Legacy,” by D Magazine; Fulbright Fellow, West Africa; Compton Danforth Fellow; Ford Foundation Fellow, New York University; Award of Merit, University of Texas at Austin; and recognition by the American Association for State and Local History for the exhibition “Homecoming: African-American Family History in Georgia.”