Dr. Debra Jean Ambush will hold a discussion of her current exhibition, Letters from Farmville, coming up next week at the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts. This program will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 23, and is free and open to the public. Doors will open at 5:45 p.m. for refreshments, and the program will begin at 6 p.m.

In 1989, Ambush came to Farmville to help settle an estate for a recently passed family member. In her family’s farm house was a trunk that contained receipts, papers, photographs and personal correspondence dating back to 1872. For over 30 years these documents, which are an ancestral connection to the artist, have served as vital sources of artistic inspiration and interpretation as she seeks to understand her family’s histories, stories and memories. Letters from Farmville: Reflections on Ancestral Arrival into Descendant Memory is a four-part exhibition that visualizes African American family history to illuminate the ways in which memory is constructed, lost, and cherished. 

“This will be a wonderful opportunity to meet Dr. Ambush, take a closer look at the works, and hear from her,” said Alex Grabiec, the LCVA’s Curator of Exibitions. The exhibition will be on view through Jan. 21, 2025.