1463702400


The Jung Center

African Art for Life and the Afterlife: The Importance of Rites of Passage

Friday, May. 20, 2016

07:00 PM – 08:30 PM
US/Central

PSYCHOLOGY-AND-LIFE-240X240

Explore the important role of art in African rites of passage. The two most significant and widespread rites are initiations to adulthood and funerary rituals. Both occasions are liminal states – between childhood and productive adulthood, and from the world of the living to that of afterlife. These are periods of uncertainty and anxiety that require the presence of the gods and spirits – embodied in masks – to help stabilize the social order. Dramatic masquerades both entertain and help to effect change for the participants.

This lecture will look at a number of masquerade forms from several different African peoples, including a towering monumental mask tasked to renew the world and send a revered dead elder to his ancestral home.

About the Lecture

Herbert (Skip) Cole, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His specialty is African art, but his teaching areas and subjects include African American, Native American, Oceanic, and Indonesian art in festivals, shrines, architecture, and performance. He has held fellowships from the NEH, Smithsonian Institution, and Ford Foundation. His major publications include Icons: Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa, Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos, and The Arts of Ghana.

Related Links

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HOURS & ADMISSION

  • Monday - Thursday, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
    Friday, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
    Saturday, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
    Bookstore Closed Friday, -
    Closed Sunday
  • Member Pricing: $15.00 Non-member Pricing: $20.00

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  • Street Parking
  • Do not park in the lot behind the MFAH building on weekdays before 5 pm. However, the museum does generously allow Jung Center patrons to park in the lot after 5 pm and on the weekend. Paid parking available in front of The Center and on Montrose in front of The Glassell School and the MFAH Administration Building. Parking is always at a premium in the Museum District during business hours, but parallel parking spaces can often be found in front of The Center and on Montrose in front of The Glassell School and the MFAH Administration Building.

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