Minneapolis Institute of Arts 79 FIG. 9: Installation view of the new African galleries at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The “Designing Form and Function” section, showing ceramics, textiles, gourds, and metal blades. Image courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. amassed an extensive personal collection that emphasized his particular expertise, including an impressive Dan or Mano face mask now at the MIA (fig. 8).7 THE INSTALLATION Three African art galleries reopened at the MIA in November 2013, after having been closed for nearly a year and undergoing major demolition and construction work. The aim of the new installation is to make the works as accessible as possible—physically, emotionally, and intellectually— and thus enhance the appreciation and understanding of African art in the context of a Midwestern encyclopedic museum. Two large galleries, covering 4,050 square feet (some 375 square meters), have been united by removing a wall that separated them and are spatially and conceptually connected by a so-called “spine of masks”—eight floor-to-ceiling cases that hide structural columns and show one or two masks each, mounted at eye level and visible from three sides (fig. 7). The open layout features platforms, vitrines in the center, and only a few relatively small wall cases. This encourages visitors to create their own pathways amid the art, promotes cross-cultural dialogues between objects, and allows the art to be seen as dynamic and kinetic. The overarching theme of the reinstallation, “African Art in Motion,” challenges perceptions of Africa as culturally static, isolated, and homogenous, instead emphasizing the long and ongoing history of innovative creative encounters within the continent and between African artists and people from other parts of the globe. In particular, “motion” refers to the movement of objects, ideas, images, materials, and people, including the visitors
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