We Were Here: The Untold History of  Black Africans in Renaissance Europe
Film screening and Questions with Director Fred Kuwornu
​

Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 6pm
Krinovitz Hall, Hawkins Hall,
SUNY Plattsburgh

​
Fred Kudjo Kuwornu is an Afro-Italian and U.S. multi-hyphenate socially engaged artist, filmmaker, curator and scholar based in New York. His work bridges past and present, the seen and unseen, exploring identity and race through historical remixing of archival materials.

We Were Here – The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, exhibited at the Central Pavilion of the 60ᵗʰ International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, sheds light on the overlooked presence of African and Black individuals in Renaissance Europe, highlighting their depiction in masterpieces by some of the era’s most celebrated artists. How did they come to Europe? Why were they portrayed? Were they truly all servants or enslaved? If the Black faces depicted in these Renaissance masterpieces could speak, what would they tell us?


​Sponsored by the Plattsburgh State Art Museum, The Office of Diversity Equity & Inclusion and the Departments of Art & Design, Sociology and History, with support from the Student Association.

---