"Art of Africa Unmasked at the Cantor Art Gallery"

The latest exhibition at the College’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery has ties to the City and it’s capturing the attention of local media, including the Telegram & Gazette and Worcester Magazine. On view now through March 31 are 65 objects of 20th century African art including textiles, jewelry, ceremonial masks, and sculpture, in an exhibition titled Art of Africa.  The exhibit was originally compiled by Worcester native Warren Robbins and is on loan from the Center for Cross Cultural Communication in Washington, D.C.  The entire collection at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African Art consists of over 9,000 pieces, of which Robbins hoped would endure as a way to understand cultural differences.

Roger Hankins, the director of the Cantor Art Gallery, first saw the show in New Hampshire and wanted to bring an understanding of African art to Worcester and the College community.  “For the college, the history department is really interested in this show as well as the anthropology department and the art studio and art history people. It crosses a lot of different disciplines here,” Hankins told the Telegram & Gazette . “For the public, it's a really great opportunity to see fine examples of 20th-century work that has actually been used. These are not pieces that have been made for the tourist trade but they're objects that have been part of rituals, ceremonies and traditions.”

Read more in Worcester Magazine and the Telegram & Gazette.



This 'Holy Cross in the News' item by Kristine Maloney.