Symposium: Mobility, Change & Exchange in African Art

This one-day symposium celebrates the opening of the re-installation of the MIA’s African art galleries, a three-year project led by Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers, head of the Arts of Africa and the Americas Department and curator of African Art. The newly designed galleries contribute to the appreciation and understanding of African art by highlighting the long and ongoing history of innovative artistic exchanges within the continent and among Africans and societies from other parts of the globe.

Schedule

8:30 AM, Registration

9 AM, Welcome by Kaywin Feldman, MIA Director and President, and Introduction by Grootaers

10 AM

• “The ‘In-betweenness’ of Things: Materializing Movement and Cultural Interaction in the Sierra Leonean Object Diaspora,” by Paul Basu, MSc, PhD, Reader in Material Culture and Museum Studies at University College London.
• “The Art of Conversion in the Early Modern Kingdom of Kongo,” by Cécile Fromont, PhD, assistant professor of art history at the University of Chicago.
• “The Arts of Post-Millennial Haiti,” by Donald J. Cosentino, PhD, professor emeritus of culture and performance at UCLA.

11:30 AM, questions from the audience

Noon, break

1:30 PM

• “Trade in African Antiquities: What Is Happening on the East African Scene These Days?” by
  Chapurukha Kusimba, PhD, curator of African anthropology at the Field Museum and professor of anthropology at University of Illinois in Chicago.
• “Intercontinental Trading Networks between Europe and West Africa (1500-1625),” by
  Peter Mark, PhD, professor of African art history at Wesleyan University.
• “The Dance of Art, The Art of Dance: Presentation, Engagement, Reception, and Contemporary Works by Kehinde Wiley, Wangechi Mutu, and Yinka Shonibare,” by Isolde Brielmaier, PhD, chief curator of exhibitions at Savannah College of Art and Design.

3-4 PM, questions from the audience

4-6 PM, reception and gallery visit

(The museum closes to the public at 5:00 PM)

 

Admission: $60; $30 for MIA members; free for members of the African Art and Contemporary Art Affinity Groups; free for students who register with Peggy Linrud at 612-870-3202

To reserve tickets, call (612) 870-6323 or reserve tickets online.

Generous support for the reinstallation of the African galleries provided by: The Wallace Foundation Excellence Award, the W. Duncan and Nivin MacMillan Foundation, Bob Ulrich and Diane Sillik, and Dr. Mary Ruth Weisel.