In curatorial practices today, asking the question “What is art?” leads to a clear lack of a singularly “correct” answer. Expand the question to “What is African art?” and the territory becomes even murkier in that both the terms “art” and “Africa” resist definition. The navigation toward mutual understanding becomes an almost impassable quagmire of definitions, territorialism, and exclusionism, especially when expanding these questions to the exhibition of arts from various cultures around the world.

In this presentation, Dr. Barbara Thompson re-examines her use of curatorial activism in exhibitions and experimental interventions curated at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, which not only challenged older museological practices but also fostered open dialogue about the development of new paradigms.

Readings are available from macs@ucsc.edu

For more information, please contact Lucian Gomoll at macs@ucsc.edu or visit the MACS website at http://macs.ucsc.edu/

This event is co-sponsored by the Museum and Curatorial Studies (MACS) Cluster, and the History of Consciousness Department