Presented By: University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA)
We Write To You About Africa
Following years of research into the Museum’s and University of Michigan’s relationships with Africa and African art collections, We Write To You About Africa is a complete reinstallation and doubling of the Museum’s space dedicated to African art.
Featuring a wide range of artworks—from historic Yoruba and Kongo figures to contemporary works by African and African American artists, such as Sam Nhlengenthwa, Masimba Hwati, Jon Onye Lockard and Shani Peters—the exhibition directly addresses the complex and difficult histories inherent to African art collections in the Global North, including their entanglements with colonization and global efforts to repatriate African artworks to the continent.
Art collections, by their very nature, can not be anything other than subjective. With I Write To You About Africa, we examine the subjective ways UMMA and the University of Michigan as a whole have collected and presented art from and connected to the African diaspora.
Drawn from art collections across the U-M campus, a special section of the exhibition highlights how the founding of the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) and the African Studies Center (ASC) impacted U–M’s collecting practices. This section includes an exciting and ongoing project—contemporary African artists, scholars, and curators will be asked to write about their work on postcards, in their first language, and mail them to UMMA where they will be displayed alongside their works.
We Write To You About Africa will be a reinstallation of the Museum’s Robert and Lillian Montalto Bohlen Gallery of African art and the connected Alfred A Taubman Gallery II. It is slated to open in 2021 and will be on view indefinitely.
Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost, the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, and the African Studies Center.
Featuring a wide range of artworks—from historic Yoruba and Kongo figures to contemporary works by African and African American artists, such as Sam Nhlengenthwa, Masimba Hwati, Jon Onye Lockard and Shani Peters—the exhibition directly addresses the complex and difficult histories inherent to African art collections in the Global North, including their entanglements with colonization and global efforts to repatriate African artworks to the continent.
Art collections, by their very nature, can not be anything other than subjective. With I Write To You About Africa, we examine the subjective ways UMMA and the University of Michigan as a whole have collected and presented art from and connected to the African diaspora.
Drawn from art collections across the U-M campus, a special section of the exhibition highlights how the founding of the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) and the African Studies Center (ASC) impacted U–M’s collecting practices. This section includes an exciting and ongoing project—contemporary African artists, scholars, and curators will be asked to write about their work on postcards, in their first language, and mail them to UMMA where they will be displayed alongside their works.
We Write To You About Africa will be a reinstallation of the Museum’s Robert and Lillian Montalto Bohlen Gallery of African art and the connected Alfred A Taubman Gallery II. It is slated to open in 2021 and will be on view indefinitely.
Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost, the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, and the African Studies Center.
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