#  Cheryl Finley 

 

 



   ![Cheryl Finley. Photo by Gediyon Kifle](/sites/g/files/omnuum10831/files/styles/hwp_4_5__320x400/public/2025-11/thumbnail_Image.jpg?h=740785eb&itok=IdfEPaVW) 

 



 





 

Cheryl Finley, Ph.D., is the Walton Endowed Professor and Director of the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective in the Department of Art & Visual Culture at Spelman College. Committed to engaging strategic partners to transform the arts 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 leaders.

A curator and contemporary art critic, Dr. Finley is also an award-winning author noted for [Committed to Memory: The Art of the Slave Ship Icon](https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__press.princeton.edu_books_hardcover_9780691136844_committed-2Dto-2Dmemory&d=DwMF-g&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=ElF5HiEFvhlNd0fbIGi3KWMrwEqkkU0k7jUq2s2T1aI&m=-ukh-8pnI9ivL3wldSeAvv9A9X6cQN6kPmxMqVsxBXi8B5jVBFOP8l1VIQahvhn8&s=xg5sBRMzmbckj169qJCX7RcfBo_KIaEiXqfhTrSmchw&e=) (Princeton University Press, 2018), the first in-depth study of the most famous image associated with the memory of slavery—a schematic engraving of a packed slave ship hold—and the art, architecture, poetry, and film it has inspired since its creation in Britain in 1788. Her co-authored publications of note include [My Soul Has Grown Deep: Black Art from the American South](https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__yalebooks.yale.edu_book_9781588396099_my-2Dsoul-2Dhas-2Dgrown-2Ddeep&d=DwMF-g&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=ElF5HiEFvhlNd0fbIGi3KWMrwEqkkU0k7jUq2s2T1aI&m=-ukh-8pnI9ivL3wldSeAvv9A9X6cQN6kPmxMqVsxBXi8B5jVBFOP8l1VIQahvhn8&s=NtzngR-pyGpEWNetd7NAjwjUBgJd8p-fnRZAGIqHVFo&e=) (Yale University Press, 2018), *Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story*(Carnegie Museum of Art, 2011), and "Diaspora, Memory, Place: David Hammons, Maria Magdalena Campos- Pons, Pamela Z" (Prestel, 2008). A frequent essayist, Dr. Finley’s writing has appeared in numerous academic and popular publications, including *Art Forum, Aperture, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, American Quarterly, and Small Axe*. She serves on the Boards of Creative Capital, the Menil Foundation, Circuit Arts and Island Grown Initiative.

Dr. Finley’s current book project, "Black Art Futures," is a study of 21st century artist residencies and foundations established by artists in Africa and the diaspora as bold interventions of care, community, creativity, and possibility. Her current exhibition, *‘Free as they want to be:’ Artists Committed to Memory,* is co-curated with Dr. Deborah Willis and is on view at the Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, where she was on faculty for more than 20 years before retiring in 2024. She is a recipient of the 2025 Project for Empty Space *Badass Art Woman Award*.

**Photo: Gediyon Kifle**



 

 

 



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