West Africa’s Benin Kingdom provides the only 500-year extent continuum of sub-Saharan African art works. Most works in bronze, ivory, and wood were created to ornament the palace of the divine king, or to be worn by him or his chiefs. Working with the University Museum’s strong collection, we will create a catalogue and plan an exhibition with extensive multimedia content, supplementary webiste, podcasts, and programming. It will focus on the palace as a performative space, and examine the objects through this lens.

Admission is held to 10 participants and requires permission unless you have taken ARTH 209. If you have not, you must submit a two-page, double-spaced review of any art exhibition, or a two-page essay on the potential of a good African art exhibition in Philadelphia. Submit to Dr. Kathy Curnow at curnow@sas.upenn.edu.