Beyond the Frame | Tour of Pop to Present

Join writer Elizabeth Freeman for an intimate guided tour of Pop to Present: American Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

This tour builds on conversations sparked during Beyond the Frame: Black Abstraction and the Politics of Joy, an event presented as part of the Aotearoa Festival of Black Arts (AFoBA) by Black Creatives Aotearoa at the Gallery in November 2025. Bringing a distinctive critical and cultural lens, Elizabeth invites audiences into a deeper reading of an exhibition that spans eight decades of American art.

Elizabeth explores how artists across generations have challenged dominant narratives, expanded visual languages and articulated Black experiences within American culture. Drawing on her collaborative work with Black Creatives Aotearoa, she will highlight themes of abstraction, identity and joy that resonate throughout the exhibition. 

This tour offers a reflective and conversational space to engage closely with the artworks, ask questions and encounter new perspectives.

@blackcreativesaotearoa @afoba.nz

Elizabeth Freeman is a writer based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Originally from the United States, she moved to Aotearoa a decade ago to study and completed her degree in art history at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland. She’s worked across various creative fields and has a particular interest in how museums shape public understanding of visual culture and their role in civic mythmaking. She sees this exhibition as an opportunity to explore the positioning of African American art within the broader canon of American art.