AFRICAN MUSEUMS PAGE Send information on your area's museums africa@dowco.com Zambia Watch for our item on the Editor's interview with the management at Lusaka's Cultural History Museum, Zambia USA: Washington, DC The Black Fashion Museum African American Expressions 1890-1990 202.667-0744 (v) or 202.667-4379 (f) www.bfmdc.org About the Museum for African Art The Museum for African Art is the only independent museum in the United States dedicated to African art and culture. The Museum celebrates the majesty and wonder of the rich, varied and diverse cultures of the African continent through a wide variety of exhibitions and public programming. 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 Worldwide: African museums around the world http://www.universes-in-universe.de/africa/e-mus-europe.htm Black History Month How it began . check this website http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmintro1.html USA: Congress Approves Black History Museum "The museum, to be called the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, is expected to take several years and more than $400 million to build, said one of the bill's supporters, Senator Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania." It will be part of the Smithsonian Institution. A separate museum on the black American experience can be justified, given the central significance of slavery in American history and the extraordinary efforts of Americans to listen to the better angels of our nature and create a nation based on the principles of the Declaration of Independence. But the likelihood the endeavor will be ideologically tainted is unavoidable; simply consider the dubious quality of the American History museum's frequent assaults on American political principles and just plain history. The best result to come of a black American history museum would be its simplicity-- a plain retelling of the black experience with a minimum of embellishment. By way of advice, note the exchange between John Eastman (see The Remedy, Sept. 6and me about the new museum on the Constitution, in Philadelphia USA: New York City MUSEUM FOR AFRICAN ART LAUNCHES 20TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR 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. Send us a profile of your city ATA Events in 34 Cities since 1975 Nairobi, Kenya Abidjan, Ivory Coast Sousse, Tunisia Monastir, Tunisia Tangier, Morocco Libreville, Gabon Lusaka, Zambia Lome, Togo Cairo, Egypt Banjul, The Gambia Douala, Cameroon Harare, Zimbabwe Casablanca, Morocco Saly, Senegal Dakar, Senegal Accra, Ghana Windhoek, Namibia Marrakech, Morocco Cotonou, Benin Arusha, Tanzania Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Abuja, Nigeria Cape Town, South Africa Yaounde, Cameroon Conakry, Guinée Fez, Morocco Livingstone, Zambia Nelspruit, South Africa Zanzibar, Tanzania m Dar es Sallam, Tanzania Kampala, Uganda Luanda, Angola Lagos, Nigeria Lake Region, Nigeria