Class stages African art exhibition

Discussion has been exceptionally lively in the year-long museum studies class at the university.

Sixteen graduate and undergraduate students in the class have been preparing since September for an actual exhibition at the Elvehjem Museum of Art. The class has been grappling with the responsibilities of choosing exhibition themes, accurately and fairly representing lives and cultures through art, designing gallery space and attracting audiences.

“It’s been a real challenge to hash out intellectual ideas with so many people,” says graduate student Liz Hooper-Lane.

The results of their efforts will take shape in “Revealing Forms: African Art from the Elvehjem Collection,” opening Saturday, April 20, in the Elvehjem’s Mayer Gallery.

The exhibition will feature about 50 pieces of art. Henry Drewal, the UW–Madison professor of art history who is teaching the course, says the students have divided the exhibition into three sections: objects by the Yoruba people of Nigeria, artifacts associated with gender issues and contemporary prints, paintings and drawings from South Africa. Drewal says direct experience is teaching students about organizing and mounting a gallery exhibition, rather than simply talking about theoretical issues.

“I want to encourage students to think critically about how cultures and era are represented — or misrepresented — in an art exhibition, and then put these thoughts and theories into practice,” he says.

Specifically, the students defined central themes; selected, researched, organized and wrote the exhibition catalog; helped museum staff with the installation; designed educational materials; developed an interactive computer program and educational kiosk — in short, coordinated aspects of the exhibition.

According to doctoral candidate Vanessa Rousseau, the course turned out to be particularly writing-intensive, and on a number of different fronts.

“We have prepared extended and short labels for the objects, wall panels for each of the themes in the exhibition and copy for the brochure,” she says. “Both our writing exercises and preparations for the actual installation have given us real-world experience in working with the museum staff, and handling their feedback.”

Indeed, working in collaboration with each other, museum staff and Drewal was a particular highlight of the year for Nicole Bridges, a graduate student in art history who specializes in African art.

“It’s been challenging, but I think some of our best and most creative decisions have come out of our most intense discussions,” Bridges says. “Over the two semesters of this course we have grown into rather a family.”

For his part, Drewal takes a great deal of satisfaction from the strides his students are making. He is especially pleased with the appreciation the class now has for the Elvehjem’s collection of African art, begun in 1970 through a gift from Lester Wunderman, a renowned collector of African art. Drewal has served as adjunct curator of the Elvehjem’s collection since he joined the faculty in 1991. Under his direction the number of pieces has expanded to about 150, drawn from more than 30 cultures on the African continent.

“This will be the collection’s first public exhibition, and it has provided an excellent venue to explore the depth and diversity of African art,” he says.

Masks, sculpture, collages, beadwork, leather work, metal work, prints, drawings and much more will greet gallery-goers. In addition, a number of special lectures and related events have been planned, among them a curators’ symposium on Thursday, May 2 at 4 p.m. in L140 Elvehjem. At it the students will present their scholarly research about selected objects in the exhibition. Check the Wisconsin Week calendar for details of all activities in conjunction with the exhibition.

“Revealing Forms” will run through Thursday, June 20. For more information, contact Patricia Powell at the Elvehjem, (608) 263-2068, ppowell@lvm.wisc.edu.