Global Imagination in Black Music Artists’ Music Record Cover Art by
Ilkka Kauppinen

Unveiling: Sat, February 10 at 10.30 AM
Time: Sat, February 10 – Thurs, February 29, 2024 (Tue-Thur 12-5 PM, Fri 1-6 PM)
Location: 3700 Atlanta Hwy, Suite 60, Athens, GA 30606

This unique exhibit brings together Black music artists’ LP cover art, dating back to the 1960s, to
celebrate their significant contributions to both popular culture and global imagination during modern
history. These album covers, artworks in and of themselves, address global challenges, humanity’s
relation to planet Earth and what a better future could look like while simultaneously keeping an eye on
racial injustices and Black empowerment locally, nationally and globally.

LP cover art has always been an important form of popular culture. This art form has a capacity to offer
visual shorthand for the spirit of the times and what is crucial in each historical era. One of the key
issues humanity is currently facing concerns our relationship with planet Earth. Dealing with this issue
requires, among other things, global imagination.

At its root, global imagination is the collective process of producing and disseminating meaning through, for example, media representations. These include representations of planet Earth as an indicator of global consciousness and imagination in LP cover art. These representations have a capacity to affect and resonate with our own global imagination: how we see, feel, understand and think about ourselves, how we relate to Earth and our distant others as well as other groups of people, or what the future might hold for us and Earth.

Global imagination may focus on, for example, celebrating the world as it is, regarding various global
challenges including social and racial injustices and global environmental degradation, or how to
overcome these challenges. Thus, global imagination has many faces: it may be optimistic, critical or
Pessimistic. Indeed, some record sleeves in this exhibit celebrate the world while others provide critical social and political commentaries. And some focus on envisioning what a better world would look like or why there is still hope that Earth is not doomed to sink into chaos despite global challenges and historical injustices caused by, for example, a Eurocentric understanding of progress.

This visually captivating and thought-provoking exhibit illustrates these many faces of global
imagination. Selected LP cover art includes examples from artists such as The Temptations, Funkadelic, Herbie Hancock, Sun Ra, Max Romeo, Public Enemy, Prince and Nicole Mitchell.

Exhibit will be available for viewing, starting on Sat, February 10 – Thurs, February 29, 2024 (Tue-Thur 12-5 PM, Fri 1-6 PM)