Join us for a talk by Chris Johnson, the artist and creator of Question Bridge: Black Males, on Sunday, August 1 at 3 p.m at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. Question Bridge, currently on display at SVMA through Sunday, September 5, is a video installation that explores challenging issues within the Black male community by instigating a transmedia conversation among Black men across geographic, economic, generational, educational, and social strata of American society.

Space for this event is limited; tickets are a must. SVMA members Free—RSVP Required; General Public $15 (includes Museum admission a preview visit to SVMA). More information and tickets are available at https://svma.org/event/creating-question-bridge/.

Johnson, who traveled the nation over a period of four years with project colleagues, will discuss the origins and creative process used to produce this eye-opening project that took over a decade to produce. SVMA encourages visitors to view Question Bridge: Black Males prior to Johnson’s talk.

Background: The project, originated in 1996, provides a safe setting for necessary, honest expression, and healing dialogue on themes that divide, unite, and puzzle Black males in the United States. Over four years, Johnson, along with colleagues Hank Willis Thomas, Bayete Ross Smith, and Kamal Sinclair, interviewed over 150 Black men in eleven cities including New York, Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco, Birmingham, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Philadelphia. The resulting video project contains over 1,500 exchanges.

Question Bridge is now in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Museum of African History and Culture, Oakland Museum of California, and The Harvey Gantt Center, Charlotte NC.


About Chris Johnson
Chris Johnson is a photographic and video artist, writer, curator and arts administrator. He is the author of The Practical Zone System: for Film and Digital Photography; currently in its 6th edition. Chris Johnson served as president of San Francisco Camerawork Gallery, chair of the City of Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Commission and director of the Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography. As a member of the Public Art Management Team for the Port of Oakland, Chris Johnson was project manager and originated the concept for the 8’ x 20’ Media Wall installed in Terminal 2 of Oakland’s International Airport. In 2021 he retired from his position of professor and chair of Photography at the California College of the Arts where for ten years he served as president of the Faculty Senate.

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