page_title: Rowland Abiodun
hierarchical_section_title: Rowland Abiodun
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Rowland Abiodun
context_page_description: Rowland O. Abiodun is the John C. Newton Professor of Art, the History of Art, and Black Studies at Amherst College. Born in Owo Nigeria, Abiodun has written extensively about Yoruba art, a body of art produced by the Yoruba people of modern-day Nigeria and Benin. He has served as a director of the African Studies Association.
  Abiodun has curated several prominent exhibitions of African art in the United States. His exhibition Artist as Explorer: African Art from the Walt Disney-Tishman Collection, displayed at the National Geographic Society's Explorer Hall, debuted two years before the Smithsonian acquired the Disney-Tishman Collection. His exhibition Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought gathered pieces from Lagos and Ife never before seen in the United States and displayed them on a national tour with stops at the Center for African Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.
  Abiodun's writings have shaped the interpretation of African art in the United States. His work on Yoruba art and language is cataloged by the Smithsonian Libraries, a library which provides cultural and historical context for Smithsonian objects to managers of the Smithsonian collection.
context_section_description: Rowland O. Abiodun is the John C. Newton Professor of Art, the History of Art, and Black Studies at Amherst College. Born in Owo Nigeria, Abiodun has written extensively about Yoruba art, a body of art produced by the Yoruba people of modern-day Nigeria and Benin. He has served as a director of the African Studies Association.
  Abiodun has curated several prominent exhibitions of African art in the United States. His exhibition Artist as Explorer: African Art from the Walt Disney-Tishman Collection, displayed at the National Geographic Society's Explorer Hall, debuted two years before the Smithsonian acquired the Disney-Tishman Collection. His exhibition Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought gathered pieces from Lagos and Ife never before seen in the United States and displayed them on a national tour with stops at the Center for African Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.
  Abiodun's writings have shaped  the interpretation of African art in the United States. His work on Yoruba art and language is cataloged by the Smithsonian Libraries, a library which provides cultural and historical context for Smithsonian objects to managers of the Smithsonian collection. Accordingly, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art has presented Abiodun's commentary as one of several credible perspectives in its Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts exhibition.
  In 2011 Abiodun received the ACASA Leadership Award, an award for "an individual whose accomplishments best exemplify excellence in the study of African and/or African Diasporic arts and/or whose innovative contributions and vision have advanced the field."
caption: Rowland Abiodun
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