The Benue River Valley is the source of some of the most abstract, dramatic, and inventive sculpture in sub-Saharan Africa. This international exhibition presents a comprehensive view of the arts produced in the region and includes some of the most abstract, dramatic and inventive sculpture in sub-Saharan Africa. The event will showcase more than 148 various and complex works, often used in rituals. It will demonstrate that Central Nigeria’s history can be studied through the relationship between the people and their arts, and a catalogue is published “Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley ”
February 13 – July 24, 2011 The Benue River Valley is the source of some of the most abstract, dramatic, and inventive sculpture in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet compared to the majority populations living in northern and southern Nigeria, the many and diverse groups flanking the 650-mile-long Benue River—and their fascinating arts—are far less known and studied. Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley will be the first major international exhibition to present a comprehensive view of the arts produced in the region. See more than 150 objects used in a range of ritual contexts, with genres as varied and complex as the vast region itself—figurative wood sculptures, masks, figurative ceramic vessels, and elaborate bronze and iron regalia—in a groundbreaking exhibition that demonstrates how the history of central Nigeria can be “unmasked” through the dynamic interrelationships of its peoples and their arts.
An exhibition created by the Fowler Museum at UCLA in association with the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, will be on view from Sept. 14 through March 4, 2012 at ...
A conversation with the Smithsonian Institution’s Richard Kurin
Richard Kurin, under secretary for history, art, and culture at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, sat down with the State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs for a discussion on protecting cultural heritage.
…I believe that when people lose their cultural heritage they lose their moral grounding, their connection to their own past…
…The cultural economy has grown extraordinarily in the last several decades, and I think nowadays it is actually the largest part of the international economy….
…it is very important to invest in culture, give it value, give it a place, and nurture it, not just for its intangible qualities – the aspects that give meaning to life – but also for its very tangible benefits, which are sometimes economic, sometimes political, sometimes even medical and scientific….
Tuesday, 16 March 2010, in collaboration with America.gov
Read the interview..
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