'African Arts through the Atlantic Imagination'

African Art in the Atlantic Imagination" will unite scholars, artists and museum officials from the United States, several African countries and Europe to examine the topic from the perspective of multiple disciplines. The series of programs, from March 23-25, will include panel discussions, film showings, lectures and classroom visits. All are free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Departments of Ethnic Studies and Telecommunications and the School of Art, the event will encompass filmmaking, art history, dance, anthropology, curating, music and literature. "

What is compelling about this event is that it brings together local and foreign specialists from many different disciplines, representing a variety of art forms," according to Dr. Rebecca L. Green, a specialist in the art of Madagascar and an associate professor of art and chair of the art history division in Bowling Green's School of Art. "

This event allows us to appreciate African art and culture from numerous national and cultural perspectives," said Dr. Ewart Skinner, an associate professor and chair of the telecommunications department. "For example, few people in our community might appreciate that Africa has a thriving feature-film culture. Here they will get a chance to meet and discuss African film as art, culture and as a factor in development through one of the leaders of African film."

Participating will be two professionals who have spent a good part of their lives introducing, and sometimes re-introducing, African art and culture in Africa and abroad.

Burkina Faso filmmaker Gaston Kaboré will show his 1988 film "Zan Boko," about the collision of urban modern and rural traditional cultures in his rapidly changing West African hometown of Ouagadougou. "Zan Boko" will be screened at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday (March 23) in the Gish Film Theater in Hanna Hall.

The director will lead a discussion of the film at 2:30 p.m. Thursday (March 25) in the same location.

Winner of a French César and an Etalon de Yennenga award, Kaboré spent 12 years as director of the Film Board of Burkina Faso, where he promoted "socio-educative" films on such topics as agriculture, health and other development issues. He has taught at universities in Burkina Faso, the United States, Belgium and France, among others.

Kaboré was filmmaker-in-residence in the ethnic studies department in 2002.

Erna Beumers, curator of the Africa Department at the Museum of Ethnology in Rotterdam, Netherlands, will give a lecture at 6 p.m. Wednesday (March 24) in 308 Bowen-Thompson Student Union on the black South African photographer Ernest Cole, one of the principal documentors of apartheid.

Much of Beumers' work is predicated on the belief that art and beauty have the power to unite people, and that "without cultural heritage, there is no future." Her 1997 exhibit, "Return of the Moon: Bushmen Art of the Kalahari" in Namibia, showcased the often-overlooked artistic traditions of the bushmen and was meant to instill in the bushmen "pride in their common culture."

One of the first people to stage exhibits in Africa of art from that continent that had been held by European museums, Beumers creates often-controversial exhibits that challenge the viewer's preconceptions of Africa and its art. Her 1999 show, "Africa Meets Africa," in Cape Town, South Africa, introduced South Africans, many of them children, to art from other parts of the continent. A short film of the experience will be shown during a panel discussion on Wednesday. "

Having Erna Beumers and Gaston Kaboré here together is a special opportunity for BGSU. They both are leaders in their fields and in the European and African art worlds," said Dr. Michael Martin, a professor and chair of the ethnic studies department.

BGSU students will have many opportunities to meet with Beumers and Kaboré during classroom visits throughout the week. One is an advanced fibers class in the School of Art, to which Beumers will bring samples of African textiles. Other classes will include filmmaking, history of photography, ethnic studies and telecommunications.

Faculty from BGSU, the University of Toledo, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Michigan, as well as representatives from the Toledo Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art and other area museums, will participate in two panel discussions on Wednesday in 207 Bowen-Thompson Student Union. The panelists are from Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Ghana, in addition to the United States, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The first session, "How Arts Promote Cultural Diversity in the 21st Century," will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and will include a screening at 10:30 a.m. of "Africa Meets Africa." The second session, "Museum Curating, Collecting and Exhibiting," will be held from 2-4 p.m.

Co-sponsors of "African Arts in the Atlantic Imagination" are the Ethnic Cultural Arts Program, the Africana Studies Program and the American Culture Studies Program.

(Posted March 16, 2004 )