The museum will host a free opening reception to kick off the exhibition at 8 p.m. Friday, September 14. Thompson will be the featured speaker at the Steven and Dorothea Green Critics' Lecture Series on opening night. We are once again doing what we do best -educating the community.
Altars everywhere are the sites of ritual communication with the supernatural.
They mark the boundary between heaven and earth, the living and the dead, the ordinary and the world of the spirit. They provide an arena for offerings and requests and act to channel positive and negative forces. Face of the Gods features 15 altars made up of more than one hundred examples of African and African American works of art. Some of the altars are reconstructions, based on field photos, using loan objects from altar artists, national and international museums and private collectors. Altars have been installed with the assistance of distinguished artists and traditional leaders including Jose Bedia of Cuba, Balbino de Paula from Brazil and K. Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau of Zaire.