Jacqueline Francis, Ph.D., is the author of Making Race: Modernism and “Racial Art” in America (2012) and co-editor of Romare Bearden: American Modernist (2011). With Mary Ann Calo, Francis is working on a new book about African-American artists’ participation in federally funded art programs of the 1930s and their impact on the emergent, US art market of the 1940s. Recently, she has published articles on contemporary artists Olivia Mole, Joan Jonas, Andrea Fraser, Kerry James Marshall, and (with Tina Takemoto) David Hammons, and the hot topic of Fair Use. Among her many museum catalogue essays are those on Romare Bearden (The Museum of Modern Art, 2019), Mickalene Thomas (Seattle Art Museum, 2018), and Ralph Arnold (Museum of Contemporary Photography/Chicago, 2018).In the fall of 2019, Francis was the Paul Mellon Guest Scholar at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC). During the 2016-17 academic year, Francis was the Robert A. Corrigan Professor in Social Justice in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. In the spring of 2017, she delivered the Richard D. Cohen Lectures at Harvard University and her talks will be published by Yale University Press. She has lectured at other universities, museums, and scholarly meetings, including those held at the National Gallery of Art, King's College London, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III, Yale University, and the University of Okayama, Japan.Francis presently serves on the Advisory Board of Third Text: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Culture, and San Francisco’s Root Division Gallery and the Luggage Store Gallery. She is the Board President of the Queer Cultural Center (QCC), a multidisciplinary resource and advocacy site for LGBT artistic expression in San Francisco. She is former member of the College Art Association’s Board of Directors (2009-14) and the Advisory Board of Panorama: Art and Visual Culture of the United States (2016-19).With Kathy Zarur, Francis co-curated the art exhibition Where Is Here for the Museum of the African Diaspora (October 2016-May 2017). A member of the 3.9 Art Collective, Francis creates the occasional visual art object. She has exhibited work in group shows at Southern Exposure Gallery (2016), the Katz-Snyder Gallery of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco (2017); and Outlook and the Birth of the Queer at the GLBT History Museum (2017). She is a recipient of a 2017-18 Individual Artist Commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission for work on a collection of short stories.BA, Dartmouth College; MA, University of Wisconsin; PhD, Emory UniversityPhoto by Sana Javeri Kadri.
Visit Jackie’s Instagram
Features and Highlights
The Huntington to Present Major Exhibition on Sargent Claude Johnson
Exhibition opening, Feb. 17, 2024, Time TBD
“Sargent Claude Johnson,” an exhibition co-curated by Dennis Carr, Jacqueline Francis, and John Bowles,” focuses on the career of this San Francisco Bay Area artist (1880-1967). The exhibition will run Feb. 17-May 20, 2024 at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California
Lecture: “Sargent Johnson’s Modernism”
Nov 15, 2023 @ 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Scarab Club, Farnsworth Street, Detroit, MI, USA, 217 Farnsworth Street, Detroit, MI 48202
Dive into Sargent Claude Johnson's Modernism with Prof. Jacqueline Francis. Engaging lecture, cocktails, and wine pairing. Learn more here.
Conversation with artist Kevin Cole
Nov. 4, 2023, 3-4 PM Pacific Time
Exhibition opening, Feb. 17, 2024, Time TBD
Conversation with artist Kevin Cole about his first Jenkins Johnson Gallery solo exhibition, “Same Song, Different Beat: ...Circles with Ladders” atthe Minnesota Street Project atrium. Links to IG.
Exhibition opening, Feb. 17, 2024, Time TBD
“A New Vocabulary”
Jacqueline Francis w/ Courtney Desiree Morris, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle
Panel : Mon. Oct 25, 2021 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM PST, online
Free and open to the public; online only. Please register at
A New Vocabulary: Labor, Narrative, and Radical Possibility in the Work of Black Feminist Artists. Black feminist thought has been a resource for empowerment language and creative disruption, used for personal and political transformation.
Reframing the Legacy of the Capitol | PAFA - Art At Noon
Jackie Francis' presentation on a photograph from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Press and Publications
Forthcoming book, Jan. 30, 2024:
Sargent Claude Johnson, co-edited by Dennis Carr, Jacqueline Francis, and John P. Bowles. This book accompanies “Sargent Claude Johnson,” an exhibition being organized by the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens examining the San Francisco Bay Area artist’s sculpture, paintings, public art, and prints.
Book, published Aug. 1, 2023:
Is Now the Time for Joyous Rage?, edited by Jacqueline Francis and Jeanne Gerrity
Part of MIT Press’ annual “Open Questions” series, this collection of writings is inspired by Lorraine O’Grady’s conceptual and performance art.
“Means and Ends” (essay) in Bob Thompson: This House Is Mine (2021)
Conversation with artist Philemona Williamson, Minnesota Street Project (San Francisco), Sept. 11, 2021, 3 PM PDT
“A New Vocabulary” panel, Oct. 25, 2021 6:30-8 PM PDT, online.