Fall 2011 Africa at Noon Events
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
The Chazen’s New African Art Gallery: Ways of Showing, Ways of Knowing
Henry Drewal
Evjue-Bascom Professor, Departments of Art History and Afro-American Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Time and Location: 12:00pm, 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI
Presented as part of a special series of Africa at Noon talks by distinguished affiliates and alumni on the development and influence of Wisconsin’s African Studies Program.
Co-sponsored by the African Diaspora and Atlantic World Research Circle.
Download Poster (pdf)
Description:
How can we accurately and effectively present the arts, cultures, and histories of Africa in an art museum context? That has been the issue and challenge for me and my students over the last two years as we have worked to conceptualize and create the installation that will be unveiled as part of the opening of the new Chazen Museum of Art building October 20-22, 2011. This talk describes this complex collaborative process: the gains and losses, the successes and failures, the compromises, and the questions that remain.
Speaker’s Bio:
Drewal has been the Adjunct Curator of African Art at the Chazen Museum of Art, UW-Madison since 1991. He has published several books and edited volumes and many articles on African/African Diaspora arts and curated several major exhibitions, among them Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought; Beads, Body, and Soul: Art and light in the Yoruba Universe; Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas, and most recently Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria that opened in Spain and traveled to the British Museum, London. Its USA tour has been to Houston, TX; Richmond, VA; and is presently in Indianapolis, IN, before going to the Museum for African Art, NY in 2012.