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The Museum for
African Art Discover the Sigui Festival
Come and learn about the Dogon
creation myth! The Sigui Festival, celebrated
every 60 years, honors the Dogon's first ancestor
by creating masks especially for the
occasion. In this workshop with multimedia
artist Sophie Sanders, learn about the Sigui
Festival and then use clay to create your own mask
in the style of the Dogon of Mali. ChildreAll
ages March 26 2:00pm African Easter
Eggs Put a little twist to your
Easter egg hunt with large plaster-cast eggs
decorated with beautiful African designs. Ages
7-12 APRIL April 2 1:00pm French Quarter Festival:
Cuisine Workshop Impress your guests with new
recipes or treat yourself to new ones! Discover the
African influences in the food of New Orleans as
you learn to prepare new Creole recipes. A
tasting follows the demonstration. This workshop is
presented, in part, by High School for Food and
Finance.16 and over Location: The Museum for African
Art, 36-01 43rd Avenue Long Island City, New York
11101. April 9 3:00pm Lecture and Gallery talk
by Robert Farris Thompson, Colonel John Trumbull
Professor of the History of Art, Yale
University Kongo Carolina, Kongo New Orleans:
Central African Impact on United States
Culture. Noted art historian Robert
Farris Thompson outlines the main areas of Kongo
influence on New Orleans society. From gesture to
musical instruments, to singing patterns to
spiritual medicines and dance, Thompson shows how
American society is infused with the sounds and
movements of Africa. 16 and over April 16 2:00pm New Orleans Film
Screening See Louis Armstrong and Billie
Holiday in performance! This 1947 film by
Arthur Lubin follows the birth of Jazz and its
migration from New Orleans to Chicago to New York.
Satchmo partners with other jazz greats such
as Kid Ory, Barney Bigard, Bud Scott, Zutty
Singleton, Meade "Lux" Lewis, and Red Callender as
they play different types of jazz in the casinos
and parlors of Storyville in New Orleans.16 and
over Location: The Museum for African
Art, 36-01 43rd Avenue Long Island City, New York
11101. April 30 4:30pm Lecture by
Herbie Miller Jazz Journey: From Africa by way
of the Caribbean to New Orleans is a look at how
cultures arriving with enslaved Africans were
creolized on plantations in the West Indies before
coalescing into what we now identify as the unique
American art form, Jazz. 16 and
over 6:00pmJazz
ConcertConversations:Andrew Cyrille- Drums dean
Pope -Tenor Saxophone 16 and over Location: The Museum for African
Art, 36-01 43rd Avenue Long Island City, New York
11101. MAY May 7 2:00pm "Mama
don't 'laaw" (Mother's Day Project) "Mama don't allow no music
playin' in here"…unless you come to this
shaker-maker, sing along, and storytelling workshop
based on a New Orleans and Alabama folk songs. Ages
5-13 Location: The Museum for African
Art, 36-01 43rd Avenue Long Island City, New York
11101. May 14 3:00pm Lecture by Bolaji Campbell,
Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Art History, Arts of
Africa and the African Diaspora, Rhode Island
School of Design DYE ME WITH MY IWA: Color, Beauty,
and Character in Yoruba Images Color serves as a status symbol
and signifier of social distinction among the
Yoruba of West Africa and their descendants in the
African Diaspora. On wooden sculptures, textiles,
beads and shrine murals they are purposefully
applied for their catalytic and transforming
potentials to make things happen. This lecture will
explore the nuances, meaning, and the intriguing
aspects of color as evocative praise poetry (oriki)
of the orisa in visual manner.16 and
over Location: The Museum for African
Art, 36-01 43rd Avenue Long Island City, New York
11101. May
21 2:00pm Dance from Congo
Square! Find out the history of jazz
dance from its roots in the Congo Square in New
Orleans. Learn basic jazz dance steps and
understand the relevance of individuality and
improvisation in this dance workshop.All
ages Location: The Museum for African
Art, 36-01 43rd Avenue Long Island City, New York
11101. May 28
2:00pm Spring Jazz Concert Enjoy the spring by taking
pleasure in an afternoon of Straight Ahead Jazz and
Bebop led by drummer Rashmi Viswanathan and her
ensemble. Location: The Museum for African
Art, 36-01 43rd Avenue Long Island City, New York
11101. June 4 2:00pm Mbira Sanctuary Build and tune your own mbira
(also known as kalimba or thumb piano)!
Discover the influence of African music in 19th
Century New Orleans, and how this hand made
instrument affected the playing style of jazz
pioneers.Ages 7-12 Location: The Museum for African
Art, 36-01 43rd Avenue Long Island City, New York
11101 . MUSEUM FLASHB ACK AFRICAN CULTURE IS THE HEART OF NEW ORLEANS February 16 to June 5, 2005 New York, NY: New Orleans, the most African of American cities, sends masterpieces of African art to New York. The Museum for African Art presents Resonance from the Past, a selection of 100 works of African sculpture from the collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art on view from February 16 until June 5, 2005, followed by a national tour. New Orleans has maintained continuous ties to African culture that go back hundreds of years. The New Orleans Museum of Art was among the earliest of American municipal museums to devote significant resources to the arts of Africa. Now, for the first time, New Yorkers can experience the full range of African art that has been on view in New Orleans since the 1960s. The exhibition includes: masks, figures, elaborately carved doors, ceramics, beadwork, and ivory carvings. Two of the most famous Nigerian sculptors of the early twentieth century&emdash;Areogun of Osi-Ilorin and Olowe of Ise&emdash; are represented. A sculpted house post by Olowe and an intricate figurative bowl and tray by Areogun suggest how individual genius modifies what is often taken to be a traditional African style, attributed to an ethnic group, in this case the Yoruba. Here we see how individual artists continuously redefine conventional forms. Click for larger image of sculpture A richly adorned beaded king's tunic and several examples of sumptuous beadwork, symbols of religious office, illustrate how art is used to define ritual functions. Other noteworthy works in the exhibition are iron staffs used on altars by the Dogon of Mali and three Fang reliquary figures from Gabon. A carved door from the Baule of Côte d'Ivoire shows a large fish devouring a member of its own species. This piece references a Baule proverb that warns against internal dissension. A useful object of daily life, a Dan rice ladle from Côte d'Ivoire, is at first glance a spoon and a representation of a beautiful woman, to whom it was awarded as a sign of her generosity. Resonance from the Past will give the visitor a sense of the stylistic range of African art and of its spiritual depth.The accompanying catalogue includes entries by over twenty scholars of African art and an essay by Robert Farris Thompson on the affinities between African art, American heritage and jazz. Professor Thompson, the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of History of Art at Yale University, is the leading authority on African survivals in African American culture. Resonance from the Past is a collaboration between the Museum for African Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Frank Herreman is the guest curator. Resonance from the Past Tour Dates: San Antonio Museum of Art: 06/25 &endash; 10/02/05 Arkansas Arts Center: 01/21 &endash; 04/05/06 The Albuquerque Museum: 05/14 &endash; 08/13/06 National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution: 06/23 &endash; 09/25/06 About the Museum for African Art: The Museum for African Art was founded in 1984 to increase the understanding and appreciation of Africa's ancient and modern cultures. It is the only independent institution in the United States devoted to organizing and circulating exhibitions of traditional and contemporary African art of the highest aesthetic and scholarly quality. Additionally, the Museum is a major publisher of books on African art and presents educational programs, lectures, workshops and performances for children, students and adults. For 20 years, the Museum for African Art's exhibitions have profoundly changed and deepened people's understanding of Africa and African art. Founded in the belief that "traditional African art is one of mankind's highest achievements," the Museum continues to develop original and innovative approaches to the arts of the African continent. Currently located in an interim space in Long Island City, Queens, the Museum for African Art is building a new permanent home on Manhattan's Museum Mile at 110th Street and Fifth Avenue. Museum Location and Hours: 36-01 43rd Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101 Monday, Thursday, Friday &endash; 10AM-5PM Saturday and Sunday &endash; 11AM-5PM Closed Tuesday and Wednesday Please go to www.africanart.org for transit information. Contact: Genelle Brooks 917.609.2139 pr@africanart.org
The Museum for African Art Names Dr Enid Schildkrout Chief Curator New York, NY: The Museum for African Art has named Dr. Enid Schildkrout to the post of Chief Curator. She will be responsible for creating and organizing exhibitions, maintaining relations with scholars, collectors, and other museums, and developing a permanent collection. She will be working with the architects and designers to plan the galleries in the Museum's new building at Fifth Avenue and 110th Street, scheduled to open in 2007. Dr. Schildkrout has worked for three decades as a Curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where she also served as Chair of the Division of Anthropology from 1997-2002. She has curated major exhibitions including Body Art: Marks of Identity (1999), African Reflections: Art from Northeastern Zaire (1990) and, in collaboration with the British Museum, Spirits in Steel: The Art of the Kalabari Masquerade (1998), Asante: Kingdom of Gold (1984), and Madagascar: Island of the Ancestors (1989) among others. Dr. Schildkrout has worked with the Museum for African Art as an advisor and consulting curator for many years, participating in such exhibitions as Art/Artifact (1988), and Wild Spirits, Strong Medicine, African Art and the Wilderness (1989), for which she edited the catalogue. Throughout her career, Dr. Schildkrout has been a leader in bridging what she sees as an artificial divide between art and anthropology. She brought into the natural history museum context exhibitions about contemporary art, the body, and the impact of colonialism on African art, while she has worked with many art museums to deepen their presentation of the social and cultural context of African creative expression. The primary focus of Dr. Schildkrout's research is the art of central Africa, ethnicity and Islam in Ghana, and women and children in Nigeria. Among her major publications are the award-winning book, African Reflections: Art from Northeastern Zaire (1990) and The Scramble for Art in Central Africa (1998) (both with Curtis A. Keim), and People of the Zongo: The Transformation of Ethnic Identities in Ghana (1978). Dr Schildkrout holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University and a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College. Dr. Schildkrout is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She has served as President of the Council for Museum Anthropology and on the executive and editorial boards of major scholarly organizations including the Arts Council of the African Studies Association. For over a decade she served as guest curator for the San Francisco Airport Museums, and is currently an advisor to The Brooklyn Children's Museum and on the Project Advisory Board for The American Anthropological Association's exhibition, Understanding Race and Human Variation. Dr. Schildkrout is married to John A. Van Couvering, President of The Micropaleontology Project, and lives in New York City. Genelle Brooks www.GenelleBrooks.com
Flashback Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora CURATOR LAURIE ANN FARRELL SHOWCASES A SELECTION OF PAINTINGS, PHOTOGRAPHY, SCULPTURE AND MORE BY SOME OF THE LEADING AND MOST PROMISING ARTISTS OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA New York, NY: The Museum for African Art will inaugurate its 20th Anniversary year with a distinctive exhibition that embodies the diverse cultural influences acting on twelve artists from Africa now living in Western countries &endash; Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora. Curated by Laurie Ann Farrell, this major exhibition, on display from now through March 1, 2004, offers new and recent works commissioned exclusively for the Museum for African Art, the nation's only independent museum dedicated to African art and culture. Challenging, provoking, questioning, and often playing with, issues of identity construction, national and cultural affiliations, globalism, displacement, and artistic freedom, Looking Both Ways will no doubt set the standard, even be the catalyst, for the paradigm shift in presentations and discussions of the works of contemporary artists of African descent. The twelve artists featured throughout the exhibition use everything from their own bodies to video, sculpture, installation art, photography, painting, to works on paper to examine subjects ranging from the portrayal of psychological landscapes, defining one's place through material culture, to the assimilation into or exclusion from Western culture. Wall texts incorporating the artists' own words, in quotations and excerpts from interviews, the biographies of these artists, and the stories behind their travels from Africa to Europe and North America, will direct the narrative of the exhibition. Looking Both Ways is undoubtedly brought to life by the candid narratives that accompany the artists' works instead of relying solely on the theoretical issues offered by scholars. The exhibition both introduces a new generation of emerging artists and highlights artists who are established within the African art community, but may not be known to a broader public. For the past 20 years, the Museum for African Art has created and toured more than 40 exhibitions to over 90 museums around the world. Looking Both Ways promises to be one of the Museum's most well traveled exhibitions with seven venues already scheduled in the United States and Europe through 2006. The list of participating artists includes: ß Fernando Alvim. Born in Angola, lives in Brussels. Two new commissions and one existing work ß Ghada Amer. Born in Egypt, lives in New York City. New and existing works ß Oladélé Bamgboyé. Born in Nigeria, lives in London. New installation commission ß Allan deSouza. Born in Kenya, lives in Los Angeles. New and existing works ß Kendell Geers. Born in South Africa, lives in Brussels. New installation commission ß Moshekwa Langa. Born in South Africa, lives in Amsterdam. New commissions ß Hassan Musa. Born in Sudan, lives in Domessargues, France. New and recent works ß N'Dilo Mutima. Born in Angola, lives in Lisbon, Portugal. Existing works ß Wangechi Mutu. Born in Kenya, lives in New York City. New commissions ß Ingrid Mwangi. Born in Kenya, lives in Ludwigshafen, Germany. New and existing works ß Zineb Sedira. Born in Paris, lives in London. New and existing works ß Yinka Shonibare. Born in London, lives in London. New installation commission OPENING WEEKEND ACTIVITIES PLANNED AT THE MUSEUM ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15th INCLUDE: 12:00 PM A Graphic Performance: The Survivors Name-Plates Cena: Visual Installation and Graphic Ceremony with Artist Hassan Musa Explore your identity with this interactive performance that uses graphic marks as a symbol of self. 1:30 PM Gallery Talk: Focus Gallery Talk with Exhibition Curator George Chemeche, Curator of Doubly Blessed: The Ibeji Twins of Nigeria, engages visitors in a compelling discussion of the ritual practices that honor Nigerian twins. 3:30 PM Meet The Artists: Panel Discussion with Exhibition Artists -Moderated by MAA and Exhibition Curator Laurie Ann Farrell Join us for an open dialogue between the audience and featured artists of Looking Both Ways. Participating artists include Ghada Amer, Allan deSouza, Kendell Geers, Moshekwa Langa, Hassan Musa, Wangechi Mutu, Zineb Sedira and Yinka Shonibare. Altria Group, Inc. is the major corporate sponsor of Looking Both Ways. Additional support has been provided by: AFAA, the British Council, Étant Donnés: The French-American Fund for Contemporary Art, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Goethe Institut, The Mondriaan Foundation, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. About the Museum for
African Art About Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE: MO) is the parent company of Kraft Foods Inc. and Philip Morris International Inc. For more than four decades, the companies of Altria have provided sustained and wide-ranging support of programs that help people in need, enrich communities and promote economic development. This includes a long-term commitment to supporting innovative and diverse voices in the arts, including the Museum of African Art since 1985. Additional information is available at www.altria.com/media_programs. Museum Hours: Monday, Thursday, Friday- 10:00 AM-5:00 PM Saturday and Sunday- 11:00 AM-5:00 PM Closed Tuesday and Wednesday Please go to www.africanart.org for transit information LAURIE ANN FARRELL Curator at the Museum for African Art, New York, received her MA in African Art History and Theory from The University of Arizona. Ms. Farrell has worked on numerous exhibitions while at the Museum, including, Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa; Hair in African Art and Culture; In the Presence of Spirits; African Forms; and Bamana: The Art of Existence in Mali. Ms. Farrell is currently curating the much anticipated, major exhibition, Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora, for the Museum for African Art. She writes on the subject of contemporary art from Africa and is a regular contributor of articles and reviews to African Arts, Artthrob, and Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. |
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March
19 2:00pm