ART ON VIEW 90 from local collectors, including fi ne examples of beadwork, sculpture, and textiles. Over the decades, LACMA hosted many exhibitions of African art and in the 1990s and early 2000s maintained a small permanent gallery to feature the growing collection of African acquisitions. In 2006, Michael Govan took the helm of LACMA. As the CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, he brought with him a dynamic global vision for the museum and a genuine commitment to the arts of Africa. Together with Nancy Thomas, Senior Deputy Director, who has worked persistently for years to sustain a presence for the arts of Africa at LACMA, they have cultivated a new excitement and energy for the museum in this area. As a result, LACMA’s attention to African arts has grown with renewed vigor in recent years, both in the areas of collections and exhibitions. In 2008, they invited Dr. Mary (Polly) Nooter Roberts, Professor of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA, to guest curate an exhibition titled Tradition as Innovation in African Art. In 2011, Roberts was named Consulting Curator of African Art to launch a departments. The African material includes a substantial and early group of shields, weapons, and ornaments from the Congo, Cameroon, and French Equatorial Africa collected by William S. Cherry between 1889 and 1900, which was loaned to the museum in 1914 and later accessioned. LACMA opened in its present Wilshire Boulevard location in Hancock Park in 1965 with a more fi ne arts vision than that of the Natural History Museum. However, this is not to say that African art was absent. A gallery was allotted to it that included loan pieces from the Edward G. Robinson Collection, but these went to auction upon his death in 1973 and the gallery was ceded to Asian art. In the late 1970s, the museum was unable to reach an agreement to acquire the notable Katherine White Collection, and it went to the Seattle Art Museum in 1981. And yet, important African art gifts have been made to LACMA over the years, starting with Anna Bing Arnold’s initial gift in 1975 of a historically signifi cant Benin plaque and including numerous donations from Central Africa by Lee and Rada Bronson (fi g. 18) and varied works
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