Henry John Drewal

Henry John Drewal photo

 

Born and raised in New York City and Hempstead, NY, Henry Drewal received his BA from Hamilton College majoring in French and minoring in Fine Arts. After graduation he joined the Peace Corps, taught French and English and organized vacation arts camps in Nigeria. It was during his two years in Nigeria that he apprenticed himself to a Yoruba sculptor. That experience was transformative.

He returned home, entered graduate school at Columbia University in African Studies with an interdisciplinary specialization in African art history, anthropology, and history, studying under Professors Douglas Fraser, Paul Wingert, Hans Himmelheber, Monni Adams, Margaret Mead, Graham Irwin, and David Scanlon. He received two Masters' degrees (1968/69) and a PhD from Columbia in 1973.

From 1973 to 1990, he taught at The Cleveland State University (where he was chair of the Art Department , developed a collection of African and African Diaspora art, and curated several exhibitions). He was also a Visiting Professor at SUNY-Purchase (1986) and the University of California-Santa Barbara (1988).

He has served as Curator of African Art at the Neuberger Museum-SUNY-Purchase (1986), The Cleveland Museum of Art (1988-90), and Curator of African Art at the Toledo Museum of Art (1989). Since 1991 He has been the Evjue-Bascom Professor of Art History and Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Adjunct Curator of African Art at the Chazen Museum of Art, UW-Madison until December 2019 when he retired to become the Evjue-Bascom Professor Emeritus of Art History and Afro-American Studies.

Over the years, he has published several books and edited volumes and more than 100 articles on various aspects of African art, primarily on the arts of Yoruba-speaking peoples of West Africa and the Yoruba diaspora in the Americas . He has curated many exhibitions of African art, among them: Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought (1989) which toured seven US cities, and Beads, Body, and Soul: Art and Light in the Yoruba Universe (with John Mason), which toured five US cities between 1998-2000. The book/catalogue for this exhibition was a finalist for the Arts Council of the ASA award in 2001.

Since 2001, he has been researching (funded with a Senior Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies) the arts, identities, cultures, and histories of African descendants in India, helping to establish the Siddi Women’s Quilting Cooperative and organizing several exhibitions and sales of their quilts. In addition, he was the guest curator at the Fowler Museum at UCLA for a major traveling exhibition entitled "Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas” and is the editor of the “Sacred Waters: Arts for Mami Wata and other Water Divinities in Africa and the Diaspora" which was published by Indiana University Press in 2008 and winner of the 2011 ACASA Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award.

In 2009 he wrote the catalogue essay for Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria, a major international traveling exhibition that opened in Santander, Spain before going to Madrid and London. It began its tour in Houston and then Virginia Museum of Fine Art (2011) and finally at the Indianapolis Museum of Art where it closed in January 2012, and returned to Nigeria later that year. In the fall 2012 he completed work on the first permanent gallery of African art at the Chazen Museum of Art, UW-Madison, with the collaboration of many of his undergraduate and graduate students. In 2013 he curated "Double Fortune, Double Trouble: Art for Twins among the Yoruba" for the Fowler Museum at UCLA, as part of their 50th Anniversary celebrations. In Fall 2017 he curated with his students "Whirling Return of the Ancestors: Egungun Arts of the Yoruba in Africa and Beyond" at the Ruth Davis Design Gallery-UW-M (January-April 2018), and completed work with a team of colleagues on the traveling exhibition "Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths" that opened at the Fowler Museum-UCLA, before traveling to to the National Museum of African Art-Smithsonian in Washington, DC and then the Musée Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris, France where he screened two of his artful documentaries: Ogun's Laugh is no Laughing Matter! Celebration the God of Iron and BLACKsmiths of Morocco.

During his "re-tryment" he continues to create a series of documentaries on African and African Diaspora arts and cultures that will be listed here and available via his Vimeo site as well as publicly on blacfoundation.org. He continues to write articles on African/Diaspora arts and artists, teach a course on African art and architecture in the British Virgin Islands, and also do pottery and various wood-carving projects such as walking sticks, sculptures and funky bird/bat houses among other things.


Henry John Drewal

250 W. 90th Street – Apt 8D
New York, NY 10024

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68 Comins Road
Hadley, MA 01035

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(608) 334-2258
Email:

EDUCATION:

1973 Ph.D., Columbia University, N.Y.
1969 Certificate of African Studies (M.A.), Institute of African Studies, Columbia University
1968 M.A., Columbia University
1964 B.A., Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y.

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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE (TEACHING):

2021-24 Visiting Professor, H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, Tortola, British Virgin Islands.
2021-24 Visiting Scholar, Black Studies, Amherst College.
2019-present Evjue-Bascom Professor Emeritus of Art History and Afro-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
1990-2019 Evjue-Bascom Professor of Art History, Department of Art History, joint appointment with the Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
1982-1990 Professor, Art Department, Cleveland State University.
1988 (Jan.-June) Visiting Professor, Art History Department, University of California, Santa Barbara.
1986 (Jan.-June) Visiting Professor, Art History, SUNY at Purchase, New York.
1982-1985 Professor and Chairperson, Art Department, Cleveland State University.
1977-82 Associate Professor of Art History, Cleveland State University.
1973-77 Assistant Professor of Art History, Cleveland State University.

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PUBLICATIONS (BOOKS, CATALOGS, EDITED VOLUMES):

In Progress Sensiotics: Senses and Understandings of the Arts in Africa, and Elsewhere (multi-sensory book-length mss)
2019 Co-editor and author (with Tom Joyce, Allen F. Roberts, and Marla Berns lead editors), Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths. LA: Fowler Museum of UCLA and University of Washington Press, 510pp.
2013 Guest Editor with article and bibliography, special issue on Afro-India for African Arts, 46, 1, Spring.
2009/2010 Dinastia y Divinidad: Arte Ife en Antiqua Nigeria (with Enid Schildkrout). Santander, Spain: Fundacion Marcelino Botin and the Museum for African Art, NY. 521 pp. [2010 editions: Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa. London: The British Museum Press and the Museum for African Art, NY. 184 pp. and Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria. New York: Museum for African Art, 184 pp.]
2008 Editor, Sacred Waters: Arts for Mami Wata and other Water Divinities in Africa and the Diaspora. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 681 pp. [46 contributors, plus DVD] [Winner of the 2011 ACASA Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award]
2008 Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of UCLA and University of Washington Press, 227 pp.
2006 Sensing Spirit, Healing with Art: Arturo Lindsay. Catalogue essay, Sumter Gallery, SC, 26 pp.
2004 Co-editor, “African Art at the Elvehjem,” Bulletin/Biennial Report 2001-3 - Elvehjem Museum of Art. Madison : UW-Madison, pp.16-36.
2002 Editor, Gallery Guide for Revealing Forms: African Art From The Elvehjem Collection, Elvehjem Museum of Art , UW-Madison. 16pp.
1998 Beads, Body, And Soul: Art And Light In The Yoruba Universe (with John Mason). Los Angeles : Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 288 pp. (Finalist, Herskovits Award of ASA, 1999 and ACASA Arnold Rubin Award, 2001)
1996 Editor with introduction, "Reflecting on African Reflections ," Elvehjem Museum Of Art Bulletin, 1993-5, pp.5-79.
1994 Editor with essay (with Rowland Abiodun and John Pemberton III) entitled The Yoruba Artist: New Theoretical Perspectives On African Arts . Smithsonian Institution Press with the support of the Societé Suisse d'Études Africaines and the Rietberg Museum, Switzerland. 275 pp.
1991 Yoruba Art And Aesthetics (with Rowland Abiodun and John Pemberton III). Zurich : Rietberg Museum . 103 pp.
1989 Yoruba: Nine Centuries Of African Art And Thought (with John Pemberton III and Rowland Abiodun). New York : Alfred Knopf and The Center for African Art. 256 pp.
1989 Introspectives: Contemporary Art By Americans And Brazilians Of African Descent (with David Driskell). Los Angeles : The California Afro-American Museum . 104 pp.
1989 African Art: A Brief Guide To The Collection. Cleveland : The Cleveland Museum of Art. 25 pp.
1988 Guest Editor with Essay. Object And Intellect: Interpretations Of Meaning In African Art. Special issue of Art Journal, 47, 2, Summer. 85 pp.
1988 Shapes Of The Mind: African Art From Long Island Collections. Hempstead , New York : Hofstra University . 31 pp.
1984 Editor with Introduction. Dimensions In Black Art--Addendum. Cleveland : Afro-American Cultural Center, Cleveland State University . 12 pp.
1983 Gelede: Art And Female Power Among The Yoruba (with Margaret Thompson Drewal). Bloomington : Indiana University Press. 352 pp. [2nd Edition, 1990.]
1980 African Artistry: Technique And Aesthetics In Yoruba Sculpture. Atlanta : The High Museum of Art. 100 pp.
1978 Guest Editor with Introduction. African Arts, Special Issue entitled "The Arts of Egungun among Yoruba Peoples," XI, 3, April.
1977 Traditional Art Of The Nigerian Peoples: The Ratner Collection. Washington , D.C. : Museum of African Art. 58 pp.
1976 Editor with Introduction. African Fabrics. Cleveland : Cleveland State University . 15 pp. with a slide set, notes, and bibliography.
1975 Editor with Introduction. Dimensions In Black Art: African, Afro-Brazilian And Afro-American Art At CSU. Cleveland : Afro-American Cultural Center, Cleveland State University . Catalog which accompanies permanent collection. 56 pp.
1975 Editor with Introduction. Visions Of Africa : An Exhibition Of Prints And Textiles By Nigerian Artists. Cleveland : Cleveland State University . 15 pp.

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PUBLICATIONS (ARTICLES):

In Progress eBook re-issue of Sacred Waters: Arts for Mami Wata and other Divinities in Africa and the Diaspora. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008, 681 pp. [46 contributors, plus DVD compiled by Andy Dayton] [Winner of the 2011 ACASA Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award].
In Progress Co-author (with Sauda Smith), article on Lukumi Sacred Arts and Artists.
In Progress Introduction and images for essay by Bode Oje, « Egungun : Reminiscence of Color, Dance, and Fun, » for African Arts.
In Progress Label and film for a Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ mask in the new Princeton University Art Museum. 
In Press “Curating African Atlantic Art: Dimensions in Black Art and Introspectives: Contemporary Art by Americans and Brazilians of African Descent,” in Eddie Chambers, ed. Routledge Handbook of African Diaspora Art History (London: Routledge)
In Press “Precious Brilliance: Joyce J. Scott and Yorùbá Bead Artistry,” Catharina Manchanda and Cecilia Wichmann, eds. of forthcoming catalogue for a major traveling exhibition of the work of Joyce J. Scott, Seattle Art Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art [revised and expanded version of 2022 essay on Joyce J. Scott].
In Press “Harmonic Artistry: The Photographs of Mohamed A. Yakub,” in ‘BioDun Ogundayo, ed. Afrofuturisms II
Proposed “Incarner le savoir: le rôle des sens dans la compréhension de l’art, de la culture et de l’histoire, » proposed for Anthropology Journal, École des Hautes Études en Science Sociale, Paris, France. [expected 2023]
2023 “Regina Francis, Siddi quilter at IFAM, July 2017,” https://quiltindex.org/view/?type=stories&kid=62-186-63
2023 “Birds of Prey, ‘Our Mothers,’ and Women of Power: The ‘Spirit Bird of Night’ Masquerade in Yorùbá Art and Thought,” Robert J. Wallis, ed. The Art and Archeology of Human Engagements with Birds of Prey. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp.185-198.
2022 “Joyce J. Scott: Art, Life, and Luminosity,” catalog for the national traveling exhibition Joyce J. Scott Messages, Mobilia Art Gallery, Cambridge, MA, pp.13-17.
2022 “Honoring Doran Ross—The Beads, Body, & Soul Project & Beyond,” African Arts, 55, 1, Spring, pp.48-50.
2020 “Sensiotics: Senses in Understandings of the Arts, Culture, and History of Yorùbá People in Africa and the African Diaspora,” in Center40: National Gallery of Art-Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, pp. 76-79.
2020 “Soulful Stitching, Social Action: Patchwork Quilts by African Indians (Siddis) of Northern Karnataka-India,” Black Ambassadors of Politics, Religion, and Jazz in India, (Afro-South Asia in the Global African Diaspora, Volume 2) eds. Omar Ali, Kenneth Robbins, Beheroze Shroff, and Jazmin Graves. pp.180-197.
2020 “Sensiotics or the Senses in Understandings of Material Culture and History in Africa and Beyond,” Oxford Handbook of History and Material Culture. Oxford University Press, Chapter 14, pp.269-288.
2019 “Revelations: Bitter History, Enduring Spirit in the Art of Daniel Minter,” essay for OTHERED:Displaced from Malaga, Art Gallery-University of Southern Maine, Gorham, Maine, pp.20-39.  https://usm.maine.edu/gallery/past-exhibits
2019 “Cosmos and Culture: Yoruba Arts for Divinities, Ancestors, and Guests,” Engaging African Art: Highlights from the Horn Collection, The Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan, pp.21-25.
2018 “Mami Wata” article for Women in the World’s Religions and Spirituality website [reprint of 2008 article in African Arts].
2018  “Creating Mami Wata: An Interactive, Sensory Exhibition” in David Howes (ed.), Senses and Sensation: Critical and Primary Sources, vols. I-IV. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic. The link to the website for the set: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/senses-and-sensation-9781474274050/  [reprint of  2012 article].
2018  Essay and eight catalogue entries for Arts of Global Africa: The Newark Museum Collection, edited by Christa Clarke, pp. 118-122, 194-197, 212-227, 240-245.
2017 “Spirit in the Art of Carlos Luna,” Catalogue essay for the Cuban artist Carlos Luna: The Green Machine. Milan: 5 Continents Editions, pp.20-29 (English & French).
2017 Co-author/editor (with C. Daniel Dawson), "Posse Praise Poem for Robert Farris Thompson," African Arts, 50th Anniversary issue devoted to "Elders and Ancestors," pp. 62-81.
2017 “Mami Wata,” catalogue essay for Musee Quai Branly-Paris exhibition, L'Afrique des Routes dans l'Histoire (Paris: Musee Quai Branly), pp. 228-232.
2016 Link [A revised excerpt of "Whirling Cloth, Breeze of Blessing: Egungun Masquerades Among the Yoruba" in Homegoings, Crossings, and Passings: Life and Death in the African Diaspora, edited by Regennia Williams, 175–206. NJ: Africa World Press, 2011 – with 10-minute video of Egungun performances filmed by author in 1986.]
2016 "Ifa: Visual and Sensorial Aspects," in Ifá Divination, Knowledge, Power, and Performance Olupona, J. and R. A. Abiodun, eds. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 325-339.
2015 “Enramada: Bringing People Together,” Catalogue essay for Dominican artist Charo Oquet and her performance project Arrayanos about Haitian/Dominican immigration justice.
2015 “What’s in a Name?” in Squad: The Calling of the Common Hero – Photography by Faisal Abdu’Allah, Chazen Museum of Art, pp. 5-6.
2015 Yoruba entries for Scheller Collection catalogue, Embodiments: Masterworks of African Figurative Sculpture, de Young Museum of Art, San Francisco, Munich: Prestel and Delmonico Books, pp. 86-89. 
2015 “Mami Wata,” Princeton Companion to Atlantic History, Joseph Miller, ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 316-319.
2014 “Art and Offerings for Gods, Ancestors, and Guests,” in L’Art de Manger: Rites et Traditions en Afrique, Insulinde, et Oceanie, exhibition catalogue, Musee Dapper, Paris: Editions Dapper, pp. 108-127, 393. 
2014 “Foreword,” Ere Yoruba: Quintessential Art by Yoruba Master Carvers by Craig D. Fashoro. Canada: Artbookbindery, pp. vii-viii.
2013 “Senses and Form-Words: Exploring Yoruba Art,” African Art: the Leslie Sacks Collection. Los Angeles.
2013  “Beads, Body-Minds, and the Senses,” essay for the catalogue The Beaded Prayers Project by Sonya Clark. Doha, State of Qatar: Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, pp. 10-15.
2013  “Local Transformations, Global Inspirations: The Visual Histories and Cultures of Mami Wata Arts in Africa,” in Companion to Modern African Art, Salami, G. and M. Visona, eds. NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., pp.23-50.
2013 “Africa in New Orleans: Creole Complexities in Racist America,” African Arts, 46, 2, Summer, pp. 86-87.
2013   “Departures,” in Air, Land, Seed, eCatalogue for Venice Biennale exhibition,May 27-June 3, p26.
2013 “Ocean Porfolio/Mami Wata,” World Ocean Journal, Volume 1, Spring, pp. 8-15. 
2013 “Foreword” – Vodun, Voodoo, Vodou: Spirits (book and film) by Henning Christoph. Leipzig, Germany, pp. 4-7.
2013 “Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) in India,” African Arts, 46, 1, Spring, cover, pp. 617, 26-9
2012 “Beauteous Beast: The Water Deity Mami Wata in Africa,” in Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous, A. Mittman and P. Dendle, eds. (Farnham, Surrey-UK: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.), pp.77-101.
2012 Creating Mami Wata: An Interactive, Sensory Exhibition,” Museum Anthropology (UK), Volume 35, 1, pp. 49-57.
2011 “Whirling Cloth, Breeze of Blessing: Egungun Masquerades among the Yoruba,” in Homegoings, Regennia Williams, ed. NJ: Africa World Press.
2011 Five catalogue entries of Yoruba objects, Ancestors of Congo Square, William Fagaley, ed. (New Orleans Museum of Art).
2010 “The Odyssey of an Image and Its Meanings: Snake Charmer, Mami Wata, and Santa Marta la Dominadora,” Actualidad de las Tradiciones Espirituales y Culturales Africanas en el Caribe y Latinoamerica (Primer y Segundo Simposio). San Juan and Loiza, PR: Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe y Instituto de las Tradiciones Afrocaribenas (edited by Dra. Maria Elba Torres Munoz, Dra. Marta Moreno Vega, and Monica Cortes), pp. 95-120.
2010 “Evocative Form,” 10,000 Years of Beauty-Classical Age/Confrontations (Paris: Editions-Babylone), pp. 128-131.
2009 “Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria,” (with Enid Schildkrout), Tribal Art, Autumn (XIII, 4, number 53), pp.76-85.
2009 “Tasting Cultures: The Art of African/American Foodways,” (with Sarah K. Khan), brochure for the exhibition at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, College of Charleston, SC. 5 pp.
2009 “Material, Sensorial Religion: The Case of Mami Wata,” in Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art, and Belief (Amsterdam) 5, 2, Summer, pp.226-229. [with responses from Peter Probst and Mattijs van de Port].
2009 “Cloche” and “Masque Gelede” in Musee Quai Branly-La Collection (Paris: Editions SkiraFlammarion), pp. 40-41, 72-73.
2008 “Thomas Moulero: Ketu Historian of Gelede,” in ejournal – University of African Art.
2008 "Arts and Agency: Patchwork Quilts and Quilting Cooperative of Siddis of Northern Karnataka, India," in TADIA: The African Diasporain Asia, Kiran Kamal Prasad and Jean-Pierre Angenot, eds. Bangalore: Jana Jagrati Prakashana, pp. 269-276.
2008 “Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas: Exhibition Preview,” African Arts, 4, 2, Summer 2008, pp.60-83.
2006 “Siren Serenades: Music for Mami Wata/mami watas and other Water Spirits in Africa ,” (with Charles Gore and Michelle Kisliuk) in Austern, L. P. and Naroditskaya, I., (eds.), Music of the sirens. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
2005 Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) in India ,” brochure accompanying exhibition in the Design Gallery, UW-Madison, August 26-September 25, 2pp.
2005 “Senses in Understandings of Art,” First Word, African Arts , 38, 2, Summer, pp.1, 4, 6, 88, 96.
2005 “Signs of Time, Shapes of Thought: The Contributions of Art History and Visual Culture to Historical Methods in Africa ,” in Writing African History: Methods and Sources , John E. Phillips, ed. Rochester : University of Rochester Press , pp.329-347.
2004 “A Spectacle of Miracles: The Yoruba Forest Spirit Mask (Aroni),” and “A Chorus of Visual Praise Offerings: A Yoruba Staff (ose Shango),” catalogue entries for See the Music, Hear the Dance: Rethinking African Art at the Baltimore Museum, Fred Lamp, ed. Baltimore and Munich: The Baltimore Museum of Art and Prestel Verlag, pp 144-5, 154-55.
2004 "Aliens and Homelands: Identity, Agency, and the Arts among the Siddis of Uttara Kannada," in Sidis And Scholars: Essays On African Indians, eds. Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy and Edward Alpers, pp.140-158.
2003 "Coiffures chez Les Yoruba/Yoruba Hairstyles and Headdresses," in Parures De Tete/Hairstyles And Headdresses. Ed. Christiane Falgayrettes-Leveau. ( Paris : Editions Dapper), pp. 171-203, 356-7.
2002 "Mami Wata and Santa Marta : Imag[in]ing Selves and Others in Africa and the Americas ," in Images And Empires: Visuality In Colonial And Postcolonial Africa, eds. P. Landau and D. Kaspin. Berkeley : University of California Press , pp.193-211.
2002 "Celebrating Water Spirits: Influence, Confluence, and Difference in Ijebu-Yoruba and Delta Masquerades," in Ways Of The River: Arts And Environment Of The Niger Delta( Los Angeles : Fowler Museum of Cultural History), pp. 193-215, 353.
2001 Common Ties: Dots, Dashes, Beads, Beauty ( Madison : Wisconsin Union Gallery). 10 pp.
2001 "Crowning Glories: Hair, Head, Style, and Substance in Yoruba Culture," in TENDERHEADED: A Comb-Bending Collection Of Hair Stories, eds. Juliette Harris and Pamela Johnson. New York : Simon and Schuster, pp. 227-36.
2000 "Terre et Tonnerre: L'Art Yoruba destine aux Ancestres et aux Dieux," ["Of Earth, Ancestors, and Gods: Yoruba Art for Osugbo and Sango"] in Arts D'afrique( Paris : Dapper Museum and Gallimard), pp. 49-65, 324-5.
2000 "Beads: Body and Soul," MUSE, October, pp. 10-17.
1999 "Art History, Agency & Identity: Yoruba Transcultural Currents in the Making of Black Brazil ," in Black Brazil: Culture, Identity, And Social Mobilization, UCLA Latin American Center Publications, pp. 143-174.
1999 "Memory and Agency: Bantu and Yoruba Arts in Brazilian Culture," in Diaspora And Visual Culture, ed. N. Mirzoeff ( London : Routledge), pp. 241-253.
1999 "Cultura Visual-Conceitos," Cultural Visual( EBA-Federal University of Bahia , Brazil ), 1, 1, pp. 19-20.
1998 "Costume in African Traditions," International Encyclopedia Of Dance. Vol 2. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, pp. 209-213.

1998 "Gelede: Masking for Our Mothers among Yoruba-Speaking Peoples," Art And Life In Africa -- CD-ROM Project, Christopher D. Roy, ed. ( Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, University of Iowa ).

1997 "Ogun and Mind/Body Potentiality: Yoruba Scarification and Painting Traditions in Africa and the Americas ," (with John Mason) in S. Barnes, ed. Africa 'S Ogun(2nd rev. ed.), pp. 332-352.
1997 Essay and catalog entries for Arts Du Nigeria. Paris : Reunion des Musées Nationaux, pp.75-84, 258-270.
1996 "Aesthetic Evaluations (African)," and "Yoruba," The Dictionary Of Art. London : Macmillan, Vol. 1, pp. 235-40, Vol. 33, pp. 553-60. ["Yoruba," in Jane Turner, ed. The Dictionary Of Art - Sample Articles, pp. 95-102.]
1996 "Pasts as Prologues: Empowering African Cultural Institutions," in P. Schmidt and R. McIntosh, eds. Plundering Africa 'S Past. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, pp. 110-124.
1996 "Signifyin' Saints: Sign, Substance & Subversion in Afro-Brazilian Art," in A. Lindsay, ed. Santeria Aesthetics In Contemporary Latin American Art. Washington , D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 263-289.
1996 "Mami Wata Shrines: Exotica and the Construction of Self," in M. J. Arnoldi, C. M. Geary, and K. Hardin, eds. African Material Culture. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, pp. 308-333.
1995 "Transformation through Cloth: An Egungun Costume of the Yoruba," (with Mary Ann Fitzgerald and Moyo Okediji) African Arts, 28, 2, Spring, pp. 54-57.
1995 "Yoruba Beadwork: Beauty and Brightness," Faces, September, pp.31-37.
1995 Catalogue entries of Yoruba objects in Africa : Art Of A Continent. London : Royal Academy of Art, pp. 414, 416-417.
1994 "Form-words in Understandings of Art," in Visions Of Africa: The Jerome L. Joss Collection of African Art at UCLA. Los Angeles : Fowler Museum of Cultural History, pp. 64-79.
1993 "L'Art d'Ile-Ife: Sources et Significations du Realisme," Arts D' Afrique Noire, (Paris), Automne, pp. 41-51.
1993 "Image and Indeterminacy: The Significances of Elephants and Ivory among the Yoruba,": in D. Ross, ed. Elephant: The Animal And Its Ivory In African Culture. Los Angeles : Fowler Museum of Cultural History, pp. 186-207.
1992 "Contested Realities: Inventions of Art and Authenticity" African Arts, 25, 4, pp. 24-28.
1991 "Head of a King," and "Mother and Child," in M. Gibbons and J.Zuppan, eds. Interpretations. Cleveland : The Cleveland Museum of Art, pp. 41-42.
1991 "Headdress of a Maiden," and "Female Mask," The Bulletin Of The Cleveland Museum Of Art, 78, 3, June, pp. 113-114.
1991 "September Artwork of the Month" [4 African objects], Artscene, vol. 7, no. 4, September/October, 1p.
1990 "Women in Yoruba Art," Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sunday, October 28, 1990 , pp. lC-4C.
1990 "African Art Studies Today," in E. Lifschitz, ed. African Art Studies: The State Of The Discipline. Washington , D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 29-62.
1990 "Mami Wata Shrines: Exotica and the Construction of Self," (Abstract) in Material Culture In Africa, proceedings of the International Conference held at Bellagio, Italy, May 19-23, 1988, pp. 69-71.
1989 "Gelede mask of a Shango Devotee," catalog entry for an exhibition at the Museum fur Volkerkunde, Frankfurt am Main , Germany , June 1989.
1989 "The Meaning of Oshugbo Art: A Reappraisal," in B. Engelbrecht and B. Gardi, eds. Man Does Not Go Naked: Textilien Und Handwerk Aus Afrikanishen Und Anderen Landern, pp. 151-174. Volume 29, Basler Beitrage zur Ethnologie. (Invited contribution to a work honoring Renee Boser-Sarivaxiavanis)
1989 "Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought (Exhibition Preview)," (with John Pemberton and Rowland Abiodun), African Arts, 23, 1, pp. 68-77, 104.
1989 "Art or Accident: Yoruba Body Artists and Their Deity Ogun," in S. Barnes, ed. Africa 'S Ogun: Old World And New. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, pp. 235-260.
1988 "Interpretation, Invention, and Re-presentation in the Worship of Mami Wata," Journal Of Folklore Research, 25, nos. 1/2, pp. 101-139. (Reprinted in R. Stone, ed. Performance In Contemporary African Arts. Bloomington : African Studies Program, Indiana University , 1988, pp. 101-139.)
1988 "Western Ijo Janus Sculpture," catalog entry for an exhibition in Geneva , Switzerland , June 1988.
1988 "Beauty and Being: Aesthetics and Ontology in Yoruba Body Art," in A. Rubin, ed. Marks Of Civilization. Los Angeles : Museum of Cultural History, pp. 83-96.
1988 "Performing the Other: Mami Wata Worship in West Africa ," in The Drama Review, T118, pp. 160-185.
1988 "Ijebu Yoruba water spirit headdress called igodo ," in W. Schmalenbach, ed. Afrikanische Kunstaus der Sammlung Barbier-Mueller. Munich : Prestel-Verlag p. 151.
1988 "Mermaids, Mirrors, and Snake Charmers: Igbo Mami Wata Shrines," African Arts, 21, 2, pp. 38-45, 96.
1987 "Art and Divination among the Yoruba: Design and Myth," Africana Journal, XIV, 2/3, pp. 139-156.
1987 "Composing Time and Space in Yoruba Art" (with Margaret Thompson Drewal), Word And Image, III, 3, pp. 225-251.
1987 "Mami Wata," in M. Eliade, ed. The Encyclopedia Of Religion, Volume 9. New York : Macmillan Publishing Company, pp. 147-148.
1986 "Flaming Crowns, Cooling Waters: Masquerades of the Ijebu Yoruba," African Arts, XX, 1, pp. 32-41, 99-100. (Invited contribution to a memorial issue for Robert Plant Armstrong)
1986 "African Art at Cleveland State University ," African Arts, XIX, 2, Winter, pp. 56-63, 91.
1984 "Art, History, and the Individual: A New Perspective for the Study of African Visual Traditions," in C. Roy, ed. Iowa Studies In African Art. Vol. 1. Iowa City : School of Art and Art History, The University of Iowa , pp. 87-114.
1983 "An Ifa Diviner's Shrine in Ijebuland" (with Margaret Thompson Drewal), African Arts, XVI, 2, pp. 60-67, 99-100. (Invited contribution to a memorial issue for William Bascom)
1981 "Staff (Edan Oshugbo)" and "Mask (Gelede)" in S. Vogel, ed. For Spirits And Kings: African Art From The Tishman Collection. N.Y.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 90-91, 114-116.
1979 "Pageantry and Power in Yoruba Costuming," in J. M. Cordwell and R. A. Schwartz, eds. The Fabrics Of Culture: The Anthropology Of Clothing And Adornment. The Hague : Mouton Publishers, pp. 189-230.
1978 "More Powerful than Each Other: An Egbado Classification of Egungun" (with Margaret Thompson Drewal), African Arts, XI, 3, April, pp. 28-39, 98-99.
1977 "Art and the Perception of Women in Yoruba Culture," Cahiers D'etudes Africaines, 68, XVII, 4, pp. 545-567.
1975 "Gelede Dance of the Western Yoruba" (with Margaret Thompson Drewal), African Arts, VIII, 2, Winter, pp. 36-45, 78-79.
1975 "Masked Theatre in Africa ," MIME JOURNAL, II, pp. 36-53. (Translated by E. Krasinska and reprinted as "Afrykanski Teatr Masek," Dialog: Meisiecznik Poswiecony Dramaturgi Wspolczesnej, XXI, 12, 1976, pp. 109-119.)
1974 "Gelede Masquerade: Image and Motif," African Arts, VII, 4, Summer, pp. 8-19, 62-63, 95-96.
1974 "Gelede Imagery" in D. Fraser, ed. African Art As Philosophy. N.Y.: Interbook, pp. 99-107.
1974 "Efe: Voiced Power and Pageantry," AFRICAN ARTS, VII, 2, Winter, pp. 26-29, 58-66, 82-83. (Adapted by Roberta Ann Dunbar as "African Arts in Festival: The Efe/Gelede of the Western Yoruba" in The Humanities: Cultural Roots And Continuities I. Lexington , Mass. D. C. Heath & Co., 1980, pp. 397-404.) [now in 3rd edition]

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PUBLICATIONS (REVIEWS):

In Progress I Shall Spatter the Sky Utterly: Romauld Hazoumè, review of the exhibition curated by Kymberly S. Newberry at the Mt. Holyoke College Museum of Art, September 2023 – May 30, 2024, for African Arts, 58
In Press Bámigbóyè: A Master Sculptor of the Yorùbá Tradition, review of the exhibition and catalogue curated by James Green at Yale University Art Gallery, September 9, 2022 – January 8, 2023, for African Arts, 57, 1 (Spring 2024)
In Progress Bámigbóyè: A Master Sculptor of the Yorùbá Tradition, review of the exhibition and catalogue curated by James Green at Yale University Art Gallery, September 9, 2022 – January 8, 2023, for African Arts.
2022 Fromont, C., ed. 2019. Afro-Catholic Festivals in the Americas: Performance, Representation, and the Making of Black Atlantic Tradition. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. Reviewed for African Art, 55, 4 (Winter 2022), pp. 90-91.
2012 Carney, J. A. and R. N. Rosomoff. In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa’s Botanical legacy in the Atlantic World. Berkeley: UC Press, 2009. Reviewed for the Journal of Economic Botany.
1997 Vlach, J.M. Back Of The Big House, 1993. Reviewed for African American Review , 31, 2, pp. 303-306.
1987 Cole, H. M. MBARI: Art And Life Among The Owerri Igbo. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1982. Reviewed for Africana Journal, XIV, 2/3, pp. 259-260.
1987 African Masterpieces From The Staatisches Museum Fur Volkerkunde, MUNICH . Exhibition reviewed for African Arts, XXI, 1, pp. 70-71.
1977 Errington, F. K. Karavar: Masks And Power In A Melanesian Ritual. Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1974. Reviewed for International Journal Of Comparative Sociology, XVIII, 3-4, pp. 304-305.
1977 Walker, R. African Women/African Art. N.Y.: African-American Institute, 1976. Reviewed for African Arts, X, 2, Winter, pp. 81-82.
1974 Gleason, J. A Recitation Of Ifa, Oracle Of The Yoruba. N.Y.: Grossman Publishers, 1973. Reviewed for African Arts, VII, 3, Spring, pp. 85-86.

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FILMS/VIDEOS: (some films below are available at blacfoundation.org)

In Progress Writer/Consultant – Yoruba Culture in the World (4-part series), Director Raynald Leconte.
In Progress Omolekan: Master Weaver of the Ohori-Yoruba. Benin (R.P.B.), 16mm, 10 min., color.
In Progress Whirling Return of the Ancestors: Egungun Arts of the Yoruba in the Black Atlantic. A 50-minute compilation of several films of Egungun masquerade festival arts in Nigeria, Benin, USA, and Brazil.
In Progress Film/label for a Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ mask in the new Princeton University Art Museum (59 seconds, AI-enhanced).
In Progress Omolekan: Master Weaver of the Ohori-Yoruba.  Benin (R.P.B.),  16mm, 10 min., color.
In Progress Whirling Return of the Ancestors: Egungun Arts of the Yoruba. A 50-minute compilation of several films of Egungun masquerade festival arts in Nigeria, Benin, USA, and Brazil.
2022 *Ogun’s Laughter is no Laughing Matter! Celebrating the God of Iron. Republic of Benin, 16mm, 25 min., color, sound, commentary in sub-titles, narration in Yorùbá and English.
2020 Honoring Ancestors – A 10-minute conversation about two Egungun ensembles in the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, SoHE-UW-Madison.
2018 BLACKsmiths of Morocco. A 13-minute portrait of several blacksmiths in Morocco (screened at the Resignifications:Black Mediterranean conference, Palermo-Italy, June 6-10 and the Striking Iron symposium, Fowler Museum-UCLA, November 10 -- https://mediaspace.wisc.edu/media/BLACKsmiths+of+Morocco/0_68orjf07 and the opening of Striking Iron at Musée Quai Branly-Paris, November 19, 2019.
2018 Honoring Ancestors in Africa and Beyond: Arts and Actions, African Studies Program Symposium, April 6-7. A one hour, 15 minute edited video of the 2-day symposium -- https://whirlingancestors.wisc.edu/
2018 Celebrating Sacred Twins in Africa. A 6-minute documentary shown at the 20th Wisconsin Film Festival, April 11-12.
2017 "Africa's Vibrant Arts: Past and Present," hour-long interview on University Place, Wisconsin Public Television, May (aired in August – on WPT site).
2017  Honoring Ancestors: Egungun Festivals in Porto-Novo-Benin and Oyotunji African Village-South Carolina. 12-minute film edited by Aaron Granat.
2016 Whirling Return of the Ancestors: Egungun Performances in Benin. A 10-minute compilation of Egungun performances in Benin, 2013, installed as part of the exhibition at the RISD Museum, Providence, RI.
2015 Embodied Knowledge: Sensory Studies in the 21st Century – 50-minute documentary for IRH website, UW-Madison.  
2015 Embodied Knowledge: Sensory Studies in the 21st Century – 5-minute IRH Website video documentary, UW-Madison, online January.
2014 The 2004 Festival for Sacred Twins in Aneho, Togo -- a 10-minute film (one version with text, one with voice-over narration), plus all unedited footage (1 hour, 20 mins).
2013 Festival of Twins – Anecho, Togo, 2004. A 3-minute film for the Fowler Museum-UCLA 50th Anniversary, Fall.
2013 FauHaus: Bodies, Minds, Senses and the Arts. Arts Institute Interdisciplinary Seminar, Spring Semester (with Aaron Granat, filmmaker & Faisal Abdu’Allah, Artist-in-Residence). 
2013  Festival of Twins – Anecho, Togo, 2004. A 3-minute film for the Fowler Museum-UCLA 50th Anniversary, Fall 2013.
2013 Egungun Masqueraders Honoring Twins. A 3-minute film for the Fowler Museum-UCLA 50th Anniversary, Fall 2013.
2011  Making and Masking. A 13-minute film for the African Art Gallery, Chazen Museum of Art, UW-Madison.
2011 Scenes of Siddi Life: Karnataka, 2004. A 20-minute film (DVD) to accompany traveling exhibition.
2011  Yoruba Egungun Masking, film installed in New Orleans Museum of Art exhibitAncestors of Congo Square
2011 Making and Masking (13-minute film for the African Art Gallery, Chazen Museum of Art, UW-Madison.
2011 Yoruba Egungun Masking, film installed in New Orleans Museum of Art exhibit Ancestors of Congo Square.
2008 Flaming Crowns, Cooling Waters: Masquerades among the Ijebu-Yoruba. A 22-minute film (DVD) with narration and picture gallery.
2006 Six research film excerpts incorporated in the permanent exhibition of African art at Musee du Quai Branly, Paris.
2000 Producer/Director of 16 2-hour television programs of Beads, Body, And Soul exhibition for public access station WYOU, Madison , WI , February-June.
1996 Ancient West African Empires. (Consultant/Commentator) A 30-minute video produced by Knowledge Unlimited, Madison , WI .
1994 African Artistry: Technique And Aesthetics Of The Yoruba Master Sculptor Ebo Segbe. A 13-minute video with narration and accompanying notes.
1992 Efe/Gelede Ceremonies Among The Western Yoruba. Benin (R.P.B.) and Nigeria , VHS Video, 29 min., color, sound, written commentary.
1990 African Masking. A 25-minute video of masking performances among several African peoples to accompany new permanent collection installation, The Cleveland Museum of Art.
1990 Yoruba Performance. A 25-minute video with narration to accompany the travelling exhibition Yoruba: Nine Centuries Of African Art And Thought.
1990 The World Began At Ile-Ife. An 18-minute video with narration to accompany the exhibition Yoruba: Nine Centuries Of African Art &Amp; Thought. Art Institute of Chicago . [Assisted production]
1980 John Eboh: Portrait Of A Traditional Yoruba Carver. Benin (R.P.B.), 16mm, 10 min., color (produced for African Artistryexhibition).
1970 Living Space: A Study Of An Artist's Family Living In A Loft. New York , Super 8, 25 min., color, sound, written commentary.
1969 Mardi Gras. New Orleans , Super 8, 16 min., color, sound.

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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE (CURATORIAL):

In progress Curatorial Consultant for the John Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History, Lagos, Nigeria (RAA Design Firm based in London, UK).
In progress Consultant for the Spiral3 – African Homeland and Diasporas film with Raynald LeConte.
In progress Consultant for Conjuring Collage: African Diaspora in the Art of Romare Bearden, an internationally traveling exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Art-New Orleans, curated by Prof. Robert O'Meally, Columbia University.
2021 Co-curator (with Sarah K. Khan) – Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Siddis (Africans) of India, Cove Street Arts and Indigo Arts Alliance, Portland, ME, February 6-March 27.
2018 Co-Curator (with Head Curator Tom Joyce, and co-curators Allen Roberts, Bill Dewey), Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths. Being organized by the Fowler Museum-UCLA. (NEH Planning & Implementation Grants awarded – opening June 2-3, 2018).
2018 Curator, Whirling Return of the Ancestors: Egungun Arts of the Yoruba in Africa and Beyond, exhibition at the Ruth Davis Design Gallery-SOHE, UW-Madison, January 24-April 8, 2018.
2017 Curator, Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) of India, the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, MA, February 13 - June 15, 2018.
2017 Co-curator (with Sarah Khan), exhibition and sale of Siddi quilts at the International Folk Art Market (IFAM), Santa Fe, NM, July 11 - 18, 2017.
2017 Co-organizer (with Cheryl Sterling) of a one-day Egungun/Ancestors Festival with film, talks & performances, CCNY, NY, May 11, 2017.
2016 Curator, Special exhibition of Siddi Patchwork Quilts, Modern Quilt Guild QuiltCon., Savannah, GA (2017).
2015 Co-Curator (with Sarah Khan), Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) of India, the African American Museum in Philadephia, September 2-January 30, 2016.
2014 Member, Curatorial Advisory Committee, the McMillan Collection, Reginald Lewis Museum, Baltimore.
2014 Co-Curator (with Brenda Baker), Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) of India, Madison Children’s Museum, February-June.
2013 Curator, Double Fortune, Double Trouble: Art for Twins among the Yoruba, Fowler Museum-UCLA, Fall 2013.
2011 Co-Curator (with Sarah K. Khan), Tasting Cultures: The Arts of Latino Foodways, United Community Center, Milwaukee, WI, March 4-July 19.
2011 Curator, Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) of India, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NY, February 1-June 30. (a traveling exhibition)
2010 Curatorial Consultant, Art/Object: Recontextualizing African Art, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA, July-August.
2009-10 Curator (with Professor Freida High W. Tesfagiorgis and Matthew Rarey) of the new permanent African art gallery, Chazen Museum of Art, UW-Madison.
2009 Curator, Patchwork Quilts of the Africans (Siddis) of India (a traveling exhibition – see exhibitions).
2009 Curator, Joyful Blues: Yoruba Indigo Dyed Textile Arts (Adire) (a traveling exhibition– see exhibitions)
2009 Co-Curator (with Sarah K. Khan), Tasting Cultures: The Art of African/ American Foodways, Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, College of Charleston, SC, June 2-September 7.
2008 Curator, Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas.  Los Angeles: Fowler Museum at UCLA.
2006 Curator, Siddi Quilt Turning, Chazen Museum of Art, UW-M, April 30.
2006 Curator, Photographic exhibit of African (Siddi) Quilters of Northern Karantaka, India , TADIA Conference on the African Diaspora in Asia, International Centre-Goa, India, January 9-14.
2005 Curator, Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) in India , Design Gallery, SOHE, UW-Madison, August-September.
2005 Curator, Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans in India , Saint Mary's Hall, San Antonio , Texas , February.
2003-4 Curatorial Advisor, "African Art: Selections from the Bareiss Family Collection," Elvehjem Museum of Art.
2001-2 Curatorial instructor, 2-semester museum studies seminar leading to the exhibition Revealing Forms: African Art From The Elvehjem Collection, UW-Madison, April 19-June 19.
2000 Curatorial Consultant, "Joyful Blues: A Celebration of West African Art and Culture," Design Gallery, UW-Madison, Spring.
1998 Co-Curator (with John Mason), Beads, Body And Soul: Art And Light In The Yoruba Universe. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.
1993 Local curator, African Reflections: Art From Northeastern Zaire(originated by the American Museum of Natural History , NY .)
1991-Present Adjunct Curator for African Art, Elvehjem Museum of Art , University of Wisconsin-Madison .
1990 Curator, New installation of permanent African art collection, The Cleveland Museum of Art.
1989 Guest curator, new installation of permanent African art collection, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.
1988-1990 Consultant for African Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art (all curatorial responsibilities).
1988-1989 Co-Curator (with John Pemberton), Yoruba: Nine Centuries Of African Art And Thought. A major travelling exhibition of 110 Yoruba masterworks shown in seven cities in America and Zurich , Switzerland .
1988-1989 Co-curator (with David Driskell), Introspectives: Contemporary Art By Americans And Brazilians Of African Descent. A show of 100 works opened at The California Afro-American Museum and traveled to New York .
1988 Guest Curator, Shapes Of The Mind: African Art From Long Island Collections. Hofstra University , New York .
1986 Guest Curator, Object And Intellect: African Art From The Collection. Neuberger Museum , SUNY at Purchase, June-September.
1985 Organizer (with guest curator John Moore), New Color Abstraction. A show of 20 works by Sam Gilliam, William T. Williams, and Al Loving. Art Gallery, Cleveland State University .
1984 Installation of new acquisitions and donations to the CSU Collection of African, Afro-Brazilian, and Afro-American Art.
1982 Cataloger, Nigerian Images: The Collection Of Arthur Mbanefo, Lagos , Nigeria .
1980 Guest Curator, African Artistry: Technique And Aesthetics In Yoruba Sculpture. Atlanta : The High Museum of Art , April-June.
1977 Curator, Traditional Art Of The Nigerian Peoples: The Ratner Collection. Washington , D.C. : Museum of African Art.
1976 Curator, African Fabrics: Tradition And Change. Afro-American Cultural Center, Cleveland State University .
1975 Curator, Visions Of Africa : An Exhibition Of Prints And Textiles By Nigerian Artists. Afro-American Cultural Center, Cleveland State University , Spring.
1975 Curator, Dimensions In Black Art: African, Afro-Brazilian And Afro-American Art At CSU. Afro-American Cultural Center, CSU, Winter.
1973 Curator, New Images From Africa : The Ori Olokun Artists, University Of Ife. Afro-American Cultural Center, CSU, October.
1972 Curator, Contemporary Art Of The Ori Olokun Workshop, Ife , Nigeria. Columbia University , N.Y.

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CONFERENCES, RESIDENCIES, SYMPOSIA, TALKS (ORGANIZER):

In Progress Co-Organizer (with Sauda Smith, Myron Jackson, Marta M. Vega), conference on Yoruba/Lukumi Sacred Arts & Artists, University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, USVI and other venues
2023 Panelist, African Art in Motion: The Legacy of Professor Robert Farris Thompson -- Scholarship, Yale University, September 7-8.
2023 Commentator, Exhibition and Performance by Daniel Minter, the Lynden Sculpture Gardens, Milwaukee, WI, June 17-18.
2023 Moderator, Artists Panel with Nyugen Smith and Meghna Singh at Art in the Wake conference, Indigo Arts Alliance, Portland, ME, May 20.
2023/4 Organizer, Class/Workshop, African Inspirations, Diaspora Creations: Arts & Architectures, H.Lavity Stoutt Community College, British Virgin Islands (BVI), February-March
2020 Organizer, two tours of the decorative arts at Blair House led by curator Candace Shireman for CASVA Fellows, February 3 and 18.
2018 Organizer, Whirling Return of the Ancestors exhibition public events (March 1 and March 11) and African Studies Program Symposium on Honoring Ancestors in Africa and Beyond: Arts and Actions, April 6-7, 2018.
2017 Co-organizer and discussant, panel to honor Gautama V. Vajracharya's Contributions to the Arts of South Asia's Monsoon Culture, South Asian Studies Conference, Madison, October 28.
2017 Co-organizer (with Fernanda Villarreal), Roundtable on “Contemporary Art Scene in Lagos & Cotonou,” at the 17th Triennial Symposium on African and African Diaspora Arts, Accra, Ghana, August 11.
2016 Lead faculty/host, Arts Institute Artist-in-Residency of Meeta Mastani, Fall semester.
2016 Organized talk by Freddie Mathodi, PhD student from University of Kwazulu-Natal University, South Africa who spoke about women’s arts (clay and dung), November 18.
2016 Co-Organizer (with Prof. Craig Werner), book-tour lecture by authors Ned & Constance Sublette on The American Slave Coast, September 15.
2016 Organizer (with Prof. Fasial Abdu’Allah), Global Curatorial Lecture Series (Bisi Silva and Brooke Anderson), Fall 2016.
2015 Organized talk by Tomas Robaina, Chief Bibliographer at the National Library, Havana-Cuba who spoke about the history of racism in Cuba (collaboration with LACIS-UW- M), September 12.
2014 Organizer, Burdick-Vary Symposium on Embodied Knowledge: Sensory Studies in the 21st Century, .
2013 Co-Organizer (with Thomas Dale and Ann Smart-Martin) of Think Tank on Curatorial Studies, UW-M, April 26-7.
2010 Organizer (with Freida High-Tesfagiorgis and Matthew Rarey) of the museum symposium “Ways of Showing, Ways of Knowing,” Chazen Museum of Art, UW-Madison, .
2008 Organizer, public programs for Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas at the Chazen Museum of Art, UW-Madison (regatta, book festival events, lecture series by artists, scholars, scientists, films, photographic exhibit, music and dance performances), October--December.
2007 Organizer, Afro-Cuba at the Crossroads: Arts, Culture, History (series of programs--art exhibition, book exhibition, symposium, films, music and dance performances—Fall).
2006 Member, organizing committee, “TADIA Conference and Workshop on the African Diaspora in Asia, International Centre-Goa, India, .
2003-4 Co-Director, Sin Fronteras-Cuba -- collaborative arts/education project involving UW-M, Madison Metropolitan School District, and the Madison Children's Museum.
1997 Proposal author and Symposium organizer, 10th Annual African Diaspora Celebration, UW-Madison.
1995, 1999 Proposal author and Coordinator, Viva Brasiland Sin Fronteras Projects -- collaborative arts/education projects involving UW-M, Madison Metropolitan School District, and the Madison Children's Museum.
1992 Organizer of Symposium and Chair, panel on "Art and Performance," International Symposium on Yoruba Art, Artists, and Aesthetics, Rietberg Museum, Zurich, Switzerland, .
1991 Organizer, Symposium on the Arts in Contemporary Africa, University of Wisconsin-Madison, .

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PAPERS/PANELS:

2023-4 Visiting Professor, H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, British Virgin Islands, February/March.
2022 The Henry John Drewal Post-Doctoral Fellowship established – Department of Art History, UW-Madison.
2022 Moderator, conversation with artists Daniel Minter and Eneida Sanches, Center for Contemporary Maine Art, Rockland, ME, October 1.
2022 Discussant, panel on “Reconceptualizing Cultural Heritage,” International Conference on Education and Restitution, Accra, Ghana, September 1.
2020 Chair, Roundtable on Arts and the Senses in Africa and its Diasporas, ACASA Triennial, Chicago, June 18-21. (postponed to 2021)
2019 Discussant, panel on the Restitution of Art/cultural Heritage to Africa, Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD), Williamsburg, VA, November 8
2019 Conversation with Daniel Minter – "Othered: The Malaga Saga," Indigo Art Alliance, Portland, ME, November 2
2019 Panelist discussing the question: “To Whom does Culture Belong?” Humboldt Forum-Berlin, Germany, October 3
2019 Screening of two of my films (BLACKsmiths of Morocco, Celebrating Ogun Ondo) at Musée Quai Branly Jacque Chirac-Paris as part of the opening of Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths, November 18-19
2019 Chair, panel on the Restitution of Art/cultural Heritage to Africa, Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD), Williamsburg, VA, November 8
2019 Speaker, panel on Peace Corps experience and the study of African arts, African Studies Association, Boston, November 22
2018 Moderator, conversation between the artists David Driskell and Daniel Minter, Greenhut Gallery, Portland, Maine, July 26
2018 “Trans-Saharan Migrations: BLACKsmiths of Morocco,” presented along with a 10-minute film at Resignifications: Black Mediterranean Conference, Palermo-Sicily, Italy, June 6-10
2017 “Come to your Senses!: Sensiotics and Understandings of Persons, Arts, Cultures, and Histories,” Bard Graduate Center, NY, August 23
2017 “Remembering Marilyn,” paper in honor of Marilyn Houlberg, at the 17th Triennial Symposium on African and African Diaspora Arts, Accra, Ghana, August 12.
2017 “Egungun: Honoring Ancestors among Yoruba People in Africa and Cuba,” paper presented at the Afro-Cuban art exhibitionSin Mascaras and conference in Havana, Cuba, July 26-31.
2017 “Egungun: A Multi-Sensorial Experience,” paper presented at Celebrating Ancestors in the Afro-Atlantic World, CCNY, May 11.
2017 Spoke at Press Lunch at preview/vernissage of Musee Quai Branly-Paris exhibition, L'Afrique des Routes dans l'Histoire, January 30, 2017.
2017 Attended FEZ Gathering -- 2nd Annual International Gathering of Artists in Fez-Morocco on the theme of “Art in the Time of Crisis,” January 13-15.
2016 “Indian Artists of African Descent (Siddis): Their Quilting Cooperative, Challenges and Prospects,” 45th Annual South Asian Conference, UW-Madison, October 21.
2016 “Black Atlantic Masquerades: Egungun Artistry Honoring Ancestors in Nigeria, Benin, and Oyotunji, South Carolina,” Critical Encounters, RISD Museum and Brown University, October 16. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f65hJmPTwMo]  
2016 “Sensiotics: The Importance of Sensory Literacy,” International Visual Literacy Association Conference, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, October 6.
2015 “Come to Your Senses! Sensiotics and Understandings of Art, Culture, and History,”Focus on the Humanities, Center for the Humanities, UW- Madison,(re-scheduled to April 6, 2016).
2015 “Africans in the Indian Ocean World: Past and Present,” Georgetown University School of Foreign Service Workshop Diasporic Circularities in the Indian Ocean World, Qatar, March 22.
2014 “Yoruba Arts and the Senses: A Sensiotics Approach,” presented at the conference Flash of the Spirit: Celebrating 35 Years, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA, .
2014 “Planetary Yoruba: Art on the Move,” presented at the Symposium The Arts in Global Africa, The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC, ,
2014 Embodied Knowledge: Making Sense of Material Culture and Art in West Africa,” Bard Graduate Center and Chipstone Foundation Workshop entitled History and Material Culture: World Perspectives, .
2014 “Africans, Arts, and Agency in the Portuguese Empire: Bahia-Brazil and Goa-India,” presented at the NYU conference/workshop on How Migration Makes Meaning, Abu Dhabi, March 30-April 2.
2014 Book-Launch lecture on Rowland Abiodun’sYoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art(Cambridge University Press), at Sotheby’s, NYC, March 21. 
2014 Discussant for two panels (“African Art and the University Museum” and “The Senses of the Medium” at the 16th Triennnial Conference on African and African Diaspora Arts, Brooklyn Museum of Art, March 19-22.
2014 “African Coiffures: A Body-Mind Art of Consequence,” for the Hair Craft Project, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA, .
2013 “Ancestral Resonance: Color, Form, and Movement in the Art of Manuel Mendive,” Frost Museum of Art-FIU, Miami, FL, .
2013 “Embodied Knowledge: Making Sense of Art,” Keynote address – UCLA Art History Graduate Student Association Symposium on “Sense*Ability: Multi-Perceptual Encounters with Art,” Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, .
2013 Co-Convenor (with Marie Luise Ciminelli), Symposium on Displacement and Diaspora at the Venice Biennale,.
2013 Co-Organizer (with Thomas Dale and Ann Smart-Martin) of Think Tank on Curatorial Studies, UW-M, April 26-7.
2012  Participant, Mapping Modernisms Conference, National Gallery of Art, Ottawa, Canada, May 10.
2012  Chair, panel on African Arts and their Representation in Museums,50/Forward African Studies Symposium, UW-M, April 21.
2011  “Afro-Brazilian Arts and Culture” – invited paper at the Museo-Afro-Brasiliero, Sao Paulo, Brazil [declined]
2011  “Comments on the Ife Terracottas in Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures,” Scholars’ Day, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, November 21.
2011  "Mami Wata as Artists’ Muse in Africa and the African-Atlantic World,” at the International conference Venus as Muse: Figurations of the Creative, Cologne, Germany, January 18-20, 2012 [invited-declined]
2011  “Le scarificazioni come segni d’identità nelle varie realtà africane” [Scarifications as Identity signs in African cultures], Conference on Nella Pelle [Into the Skin: Indentity, Symbols, and History in Permanent Body Marks], Roma, Italy [invited-declined].
2011  “Material Matters: The Art of Sonya Clark,” Milwaukee Museum of Art, April 16.
2011 “Signifyin’ Saints: Arts and Agency in Afro-Brazil,” Richard Greenleaf Colonial Studies Conference on Africans and their Descendants in the Early Modern Ibero-American World, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, April 18-19.
2011 Chair/Discussant, panel on “Striking Iron: The Artistry of Blacksmiths in Africa/Diaspora,” 15th Triennial Symposium on African/Diaspora Arts, UCLA, March 25. 
2011 Panel Chair and presenter, “Yoruba Body/Mind Concepts and Understandings of the Arts,” 15th Triennial Symposium on African/Diaspora Arts, UCLA, March 26. 
2011  Chair/Discussant, panel on the documentary film “Lamidi Olonade Fakeye: Life of a Master Carver,” 15th Triennial Symposium on African/Diaspora Arts, UCLA, March 26. 
2011  “Making Sense of Yoruba Arts,” The Mellon-Sawyer Seminar on Ethnicity in Africa: Historical, Comparative and Contemporary Investigations -- Workshop II: The Making of the Yoruba, April 2, University of Michigan.
2011 “Arts, Agency, Identity: Patchwork Quilts of African Indians (Siddis) of Karnataka,” at the The State of African American and African Diaspora Studies Conference, CUNY Graduate Center, January 8.
2011  Chair, Panel on “Representations of Africans and the Peoples of African Descent,” at the The State of African American and African Diaspora Studies Conference at CUNY Graduate Center, January 8.
2011  “Different Diasporas: Africans and Arts in India,” New Directions in African/Diaspora Research Scholars –in-Residence Conference, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NY, January 6.
2010  Invited to speak on African water spirit arts, Doul’Art (Salon Urbain de Douala), Cameroon, Dec. 4-11 [declined].
2010 Organizer, tour of the Mami Wata exhibition at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, as part of the ASA annual conference.
2010 Organizer (with Freida High-Tesfagiorgis and Matthew Rarey) of the museum symposium “Ways of Showing, Ways of Knowing,” Chazen Museum of Art, UW-Madison, October 7-8.
2010 “Re-Membering Arts and Altars: Interactivity in the Mami Wata Exhibition,” Sainsbury Symposium on Exhibiting Ancient and Modern Art, March 18.
2010 “Making Sense of Art? The Case of the Yoruba of West Africa,” Sainsbury Research Seminar, University of East Anglia, Norwich, March 17.
2009 Participant, Curatorial Conversations Conference, Edenfred, Madison, WI, April 10.
2009 Discussant – Panel on “Performing Africa in New Orleans,” ASA Conference, New Orleans, November 20.
2009 “Spirit Spouse: Art and Gender in the Worship of Mami Wata,” Alfred Z. Solomon Lecture, Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, NY, October 28.
2009 Discussant, panel on �The Power of Water,� at the CAA conference, Los Angeles, CA, February 26.
2009 �Ifa Arts of Divination and the Senses,� International Symposium on Yoruba Art: Continuity and Change, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, February 6.
2008 "Film in Multi-Sensorial Education: Flaming Crowns, Cooling Waters-Masquerades of the Ijebu-Yoruba." 51st Annual African Studies Association Conference Teachers' Workshop, Chicago, November 15.
2008 "Traveling Images and Ideas: Hindu Gods and Water Divinities in Africa," South Asia Conference, Madison, October 19.
2008 Workshop participant - "A Conversation on Curatorial Practice and Native North American Art," Sept. 25-27.
2008 "Lienzos Rotatorios, Brisa de Bendiciones: Mascaras Ancestrales de los Yoruba," Festival Internacionale de Tradiciones Afroamericanas, Maracay, Venezuela, June 19-23.
2008 Opening remarks for exhibition - "Me Ves como eres, te veo como soy," Congreso Internacional - Diaspora, Nacion y Diferencia, Vercruz, Mexico, June 10-13. 
2008 “Mami Wata: Traveling Images and Ideas in Africa and the African Atlantic,” Jerrold Ziff Distinguished Lecture on Modern Art, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, April 28.
2008 “Mami Wata and Santa Marta: Confluence and Transformation of Images and Ideas in the African Atlantic,” Atlantic Worlds: Art and Globalization from Columbus to NAFTA Conference, Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, April 24-25.
2008 “Mermaids, Snake Charmers, Sirens and Saints: The Many Faces of Mami Wata,” opening lecture for Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas, Fowler Museum at UCLA, April 5.
2008 “Ifa: Visual and Sensorial Aspects,” Sacred Knowledge, Sacred Power and Performance: Ifa Divination in West Africa and the African Diaspora Conference, Harvard University, March 14-16.   
2007 “Africans (Siddis) of India: Histories, Cultures, Arts,” Islam: Religion and Visual Culture Conference, UW-Madison, November 9.
2007 Discussant, two panels on “The (Im)possibilities of Representing Cultural Production in Africa,” at the 50th Annual African Studies Association Conference, New York, October 19.
2007 “Dreamscapes: Sacred Spaces in Africa and the African Atlantic,” at the “Taking the Road Less Traveled” International Conference, J. M. Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI, Sept 28.
2007 “Mami Wata and Santa Marta: Confluence and Transformation in African Atlantic Religious Images and Ideas,” International Symposium on Afro-Caribbean Religions and Cultures, San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 11-14.
2007 Co-Chair, roundtable on “Beyond The Visual: Social Justice Pedagogies,” 14th Triennial Symposium on African and African Diaspora Arts, University of Florida-Gainesville, March 28-April 1.
2007 “Dimensions in Black Art: Exhibiting Past and Present, Here and There,” 14th Triennial Symposium on African and African Diaspora Arts, University of Florida-Gainesville, March 28-April 1.
2006 “Theorizing Performance among Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of West Africa : Ancestral Egungun Masquerades,” ,” International Seminar on Performances and Cults: Ontology, Translation, and Exchange, Centre for European Studies, Jadavpur University , Kolkata , India , January 27 .
2006 “Global Images in the Worship of Mami Wata in Africa: The Case of Hindu Chromolithographs,” International Seminar on Performances and Cults: Ontology, Translation, and Exchange, Centre for European Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, January 25 .
2006 “Arts and Agency: The Siddi Women's Quilting Cooperative of Karnataka,” TADIA Conference on the African Diaspora in Asia , International Centre-Goa , India , January 13.
2005 “Making Sense of African Art,” Symposium on Senses and Sentiments of Dress, University of Minnesota , MN , September 16.
2004 Chair, panel on "Visual/Verbal Crossroads in African Arts," 30th Annual African Literature Association Conference, Madison, April 17.
2004 Co-Chair, panel on "Africa and the Indian Ocean World: Arts and Identities," and presenter "African Indian Performance Arts in Karnataka," 13th Triennial Symposium on African and African Diaspora Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, April 1.
2004 Discussant, two panels on "Mami Watas: The Roots and Routes of African Water Spirit Arts, Beliefs, and Practices," 13th Triennial Symposium on African and African Diaspora Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, April 3.
2004 "Teaching about African Cultures through the Arts," Teachers Workshop on Museum Outreach Education, 13th Triennial Symposium on African and African Diaspora Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, April 3.
2003 Discussant, panel on "Representations of Motherhood in African Art," African Studies Association Conference, Boston, November 1.
2003 "Art Works! The Power and Presence of Yoruba Images," The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, October 19.
2003 "Dreamshapes: Sacred Earthen Sculptures by the Mami Wata Priestess Walas," M. C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, November 6.
2003 "Destinies and Designs: The Art and Ideas of Four Afro-Atlantic Artists," keynote address at the symposium for the exhibition "Destinies: Four African Diaspora Artists," University of Denver, April 3.
2003 "Arts of the African Diaspora in India," Panel on African Diaspora Arts for the Film Festival "The African Effect," The Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, March 20-23.
2003 "Oju Inu or Insights from Conversations with Babalawo Kolawole Oshitola," at Oju Aye/Face Value: A Symposium on Yoruba Cultures in Transition, University of South Florida, January 31-February 1.
2002 "Traveling Images and Ideas: The Visual Histories and Cultures of Mami Wata and other Afro-Atlantic Spirits," paper presented at the Institute for Research in the Humanities, UW-Madison, October 14.
2002 "Oil, Activism, and the Arts: Yoruba and Mami Wata Examples" presented at a Fowler Museum of Cultural History - UCLA symposium, November 1.
2002 "Alien Homeland: The Arts and Agency of African Descendants in India," paper presented at the Indian Ocean World International Conference, UCLA, April 5.
2002 "African Art Studies: The State of the Field and My Research," Columbia University, Februrary 25.
2001 "African Americas - Religion: The Visual Culture and History of Mami Wata," presented at the International UNESCO/Palmares Foundation Conference on African American Religions and Cultural Diversity, Rio, Brazil, December 18-21.
2001 "Africans/Siddis in India: An Historical Overview" and "Siddis in the 21st Century: Dreams, Aspirations, and Actions," presented at the Kala and Sanskriti Workshop for Siddi Youth, Mundgod, Karanataka, India.
2000 "Yoruba: Les Dieux et les Arts Sacres," inaugural lecture, Musee Dapper, Paris, December 1.
2000 "Mermaids, Snake Charmers, Saints: The Arts and Worship of Mami Wata," Mermaids, Hip-Hop, Tattoo: Dynamics of Popular Culture Seminar, Maastricht Summer University, Amsterdam, August 30-Sept. 2.
2000 "Seeing/Believing: Mami Wata Icons in Africa and the Americas," International Congress on the History of Religion, Durban, South Africa, August 10.
1999 "Arts, Agency, and Resistance: Afro-Brazilian Religious Communities in Contemporary Brazil," for the International Conference on From Local to Global: Rethinking Yoruba Religious Traditions for the New Millennium, Florida International University, Miami, Dec. 9-12, 1999.
1999 "Memory, Agency, and the Arts: The African Diaspora in Brazil," Global Diasporas: Communities of Exile and Migration Conference, UW-Madison, October 29.
1999 "Whirling Cloth, Breeze of Blessing: Ancestral Masquerade Performances among the Yoruba," Dress as Transformation: Creating Experience in Theatre and Masquerade Symposium, LACMA, Los Angeles, April 18.
1998 "A Noite de Beleza Negra: Selecting the Carnival Queen for Bloco Afro Ile Aiye," Afro-Brazilian and Amerindian Performance Conference, New York University, November 13-14.
1998 Discussant, panel on "The Visibility of African Art," 11th Triennial Symposium on African Art, New Orleans, April 9.
1998 Discussant, panel on ?The Mande Diaspora in the Americas,? African Studies Association Conference, Chicago, October 29.
1998 "Cultura Visual: Art for Life and Critical Thought" Inaugural Lecture delivered at the School of Fine Arts-Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Brazil, March 23.
1998 "A Luta Continua: Arts and Agency in the 1997 'Celebracão da Heranca Africana'" at the Rethinking the African Diaspora Conference at Emory University, April 18.
1997 "Memory, Agency and Modernity: African Artistic Assertions in Brazil," Recovering Benin Conference, Wellesley College, April 12.
1997 "Snake Charmer, Mami Wata, Santa Marta: Imag[in]ing Selves and Others in Europe, Africa, and the Americas," Images and Empires Conference, Yale University, February 16.
1996 African Discourse in Brazilian Visual Culture, The American Society for Ethnohistory, Conference, Portland, November 7-9.
1996 Signifyin' Saints: Africanizing Elements in Sacred Art and Architecture of Bahia, Brazil, The African Impact in the Material Culture of the Americas, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, June 1.
1996 Memory and Agency: Bantu and Yoruba Arts in Brazilian Culture, CAA Conference, Boston, February 22.
1995 Discussant, panel on "Mami Wata: New Perspectives and Peregrinations," at the African Studies Association Meeting, Orlando, Nov. 5.
1995 Chair, panel on "Art, History, Hegemony: Afro-Brazil," 10th Triennial Symposium on African and African Diaspora Art, April 20, New York University.
1994 Ijebu-Yoruba and Edo Artistic Interactions, paper presented at the African Studies Association Meeting, Toronto, Nov. 2.
1993 Archaeology and Museums WAMP Conference on West African Museums, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, May 24-28, 1993.
1993 Pasts as Prologues: Empowering African Cultural Institutions, Conference on Africa's Disappearing Past: The Erasure of Cultural Patrimony, University of Florida-Gainesville, April 15-17.
1993 Compelling Constructs: Transcultural Identities in Afro-Brazilian Arts History, Conference on Black Brazil: Culture, Identity, Social Mobilization, University of Florida-Gainesville, March 3l-April 3.
1993 Imag(in)ing Eshu-Elegba and Ifa: Yoruba Art, Life, and Thought, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA. Feb. 28.
1992 Ijebu Art and Transculturalism in Southern Nigeria, 1700-1900, African Studies Association Meeting, Seattle, Nov. 22.
1992 Co-Chair (with Freida High-Tesfagiorgis), panel on "Black Passages: Arts of the African Diaspora," Ninth Triennial Symposium on African Art, University of Iowa, April 22-25.
1992 Chair, panel on "The 'New' World? Art, History, and Hegemony in the Americas," CAA Conference, Chicago, Il., February 13.
1992 Symposium Organizer and Chair, panel on "Art and Performance," International Symposium on Yoruba Art, Artists, and Aesthetics, Rietberg Museum, Zurich, Switzerland, January 16-19.
1991 Discussant, panel on "Agency in African Art and Culture," African Studies Association, St. Louis, Nov. 24.
1991 Keynote speaker for Workshop on Yoruba art and culture, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana, March 23.
1991 Contested Realities: African Inventions of Art, Symposium on "Deceptive Realities: Quality and Authenticity in African Art," University of California, Santa Barbara, February 10.
1990 Chair, panel on "Archeology, Art, and the Art Market," Society for Africanist Archeology Conference, University of Florida, Gainesville, March 24.
1989 Dress and Discourse: The Garments of Yoruba Osugbo Elders, African Studies Association Meeting, Atlanta, Nov. 4, 1989.
1989 Snake Charmer, Water Spirit, and Saint: The History of an Image of the Exotic on Three Continents, College Art Association Meeting, San Francisco, Feb. 17.
1988 The History of Afro-Brazilian Art, The Friends of Ethnic Art, Santa Barbara, California, June 16.
1988 Mami Wata Shrines: Exotica and the Construction of Self, International Conference on African Material Culture, Bellagio, Italy, May 20, 1988.
1988 Mami Wata: Icons and Ritual Actions, The Art Institute of Chicago, April 28.
1988 Aspects of Yoruba Aesthetics, presented at the African Studies Lecture Series, Northwestern University, Evanston, April 25.
1988 The Crossroads of Life: Ifa Divination Trays, presented at the Third Annual Southern California Colloquium on the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Native Americas, California State University, Long Beach, April 23.
1988 Objects, Artists, and Owners: An Interdisciplinary, Biographical Approach to African Art History, presented at the 3rd International Seminar on "Ere Ibeji: Twin Memorial Figures of the Yoruba," University of Maryland, College Park, April 9, 1988.
1987 African Art Studies Today, presented at the State of the Discipline Symposium marking the opening of the National Museum of African Art, Washington, D. C., September 16.
1986 Art History in the Niger Delta, presented at the First Annual Fellows Symposium, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
1986 The Influence of Ijo Ekine Masquerades in Ijebu Yoruba Agbo: The Transcultural Interpretation of Imagery, presented at the Seventh Triennial Symposium on African Art, UCLA, April 5.
1986 Mami Wata: African Representations of the Other in Art and Action, presented at the Columbia University Seminar in the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, March 20.
1985 Reflecting the Other: Mirrors and Mami Wata Performance in West Africa, presented at the Spring Seminar on the Humanities in Africa, Indiana University, Bloomington, April 17, 1985.
1985 Creators and Creations of Culture: Using Art History and Anthropology in the Study of African Art, presented at the College Art Association National Meeting, Los Angeles, February 14-16. (Symposium sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Trust)
1984 Form and Meaning in Osugbo Art among Ijebu Yoruba, presented at the 27th African Studies Association Conference, Los Angeles, October.
1983 Composition, Myth, and Motif in Ifa Divination Art, presented at the 26th African Studies Association Conference, Boston, December 9.
1983 Beauty and Being: Aesthetics and Ontology in Yoruba Body Art, presented at the Symposium on Art of the Body, U.C.L.A., January 28-29.
1980 Composing Time and Space in Yoruba Art, presented at the Social Science Research Council Conference on the Relations between the Verbal and Visual Arts in Africa, Philadelphia, October 11.
1980 The Art and Ritual of Mami Wata in West Africa, presented at the XIVth International Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions, Winnipeg, Canada, August.
1980 Art and Syncretism in West Africa: The Mami Wata Phenomenon, presented at the Ohio Academy of Religion, Otterbein College, April 26.
1979 The Impact of Printed Media on Mami Wata Art and Ritual, presented at the African Studies Association Conference, Los Angeles, November 2-4.
1979 Art, History, and the Individual: A New Perspective for the Study of African Visual Traditions, presented at the University of Iowa Symposium on African Art, April 27-28.
1977 The New Faces of African Art: European, Indian, and African Imagery in the Art of Mammy Wata, presented at the 4th Triennial Symposium on Traditional African Art, Washington, D. C., April 16.
1977 Intracultural Variation and the Dynamics of Change in African Art, presented at the University Seminar on Primitive and Pre-Columbian Art, Columbia University, February 11.
1976 Film and the Study of the Arts: Yoruba Sculpture and Dance, presented at the African Studies Association Conference, Boston, November 6.
1976 Process, Purpose, and Aesthetics in Yoruba Body Arts, presented at the African Studies Association Conference, Boston, November 4.
1975 Towards a History of Efe/Gelede: Origins, Development, Diffusion, presented at Indiana University, Bloomington, March 9.
1974 Yoruba Artistic Retentions in Brazil: The Case of Shango, presented at the African Studies Association Conference, Chicago, November 1.
1974 Iyanla: Mask for the Mothers of Western Yorubaland, presented at the 3rd Triennial Symposium on African Art, Columbia University, April 22.
1973 Style Determination in Gelede Masks," presented at the African Studies Association Conference, Syracuse, November 1.
1972 Advantages and Disadvantages of Super 8 Film in Research: A Case Study in the Analyses of an African Dance Masquerade, presented at the African Studies Association Conference, Philadelphia, November 8.

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HONORS/AWARDS/GRANTS:

2023-4 Visiting Professor, H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, British Virgin Islands, February/March
2022 The Henry John Drewal Post-Doctoral Fellowship established – Department of Art History, UW-Madison.
2022 Visiting Scholar, H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, British Virgin Islands, February.
2021 Visiting Scholar, Amherst College, AC 2021-2023.
2020 Distinguished Teaching Award, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA)
2020 Symposium “Crossing Oceans and Hemispheres – Honoring the Career of Henry Drewal,” National Museum of African Art-Smithsonian, February 27-28
2020 Emeritus status, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2019 The 2019 Ruth Hetterer Harris Lecture, School of Human Ecology-UW-M, November 13.
2019  The 2019 Margaret Herz Demant Award for African Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, October 27.
2019 Paul Mellon Visiting Senior Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, January/February 2020.
2019 African Studies Program, UW-Madison – Faculty International Travel Grant for work at the Verger Foundation, Salvador, Bahia-Brazil.
2018  My 2004 film Celebrating sacred Twin in Africa selected for the 20th Wisconsin Film Festival.
2017  Creative Arts Award, UW Arts Institute, 2-year funding for making artful documentaries.
2017 NEH Implementation Grant for the international, traveling exhibition (with Head Curator Tom Joyce, and Allen Roberts, Bill Dewey), Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths. Being organized by the Fowler Museum-UCLA.
2017 Anonymous Fund, UW-Madison – Grant for Symposium/Exhibition/Performances on “Honoring Ancestors in Africa and Diaspora: Arts &  Actions” to take place at the Design Gallery-SOHE, April 6-8, 2018.
2017 Hilldale Award for Distinguished Scholarship & Service, UW-Madison.
2017 Evjue Foundation grant to bring Oyotunji African Village Egungun masquerades for Symposium/Exhibition/Performances on “Honoring Ancestors in Africa and Diaspora: Arts & Actions” to take place at the Design Gallery-SOHE, April 6-8, 2018.
2016 Invited to serve as expert panelist for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) project “Expressive Cultures of the African Diaspora.”
2016 Evjue Foundation grant to bring global curators Brooke Anderson (Prospect4-New Orleans) and Bisi Silva (CCA-Lagos, Nigeria) to UW-M/Madison for lectures and workshops, September & December.
2016 Two hour interview of Peace Corps experience deposited in the John F. Kennedy Library.
2016 Invited to write "Art History of the Yoruba" for Oxford Bibliographies in Art History (pending).
2016 Senior Fulbright Research Grant, Morocco – six months in 2017.
2015 Bard Graduate Center Senior Fellowship, New York City, Spring 2017.
2015 UW Arts Institute Artist-in-Residence grant for Meeta Sandeep for Fall 2016.
2015 NEH Planning Grant for the international, traveling exhibition (with Head Curator Tom Joyce, and Allen Roberts, Bill Dewey),Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths. Being organized by the Fowler Museum-UCLA.
2015 South Asian Studies Program-UW – Faculty research grant in support of Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) of India, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, September 2-January 3, 2016.
2015 Brittingham grant to bring Professor Emeritus Arturo Lindsay (Spelman College) to speak about Santeria Aesthetics and Kongo Carnival in Panama (Spring semester 2016). 
2015 Cyril Nave Visiting Scholar Program/LACIS grant to bring Tomas Fernandez Robaina, Chief Librarian, National Library, Havana-Cuba to speak at UW, September 15.
2015 Evjue Foundation grant to bring Meeta Sandeep (design & craft development expert) to UW-M & Madison community from India, September-October.
2015 Brittingham grant to bring Meeta Sandeep (design & craft development expert) to UW-M from India, September-October.
2015 Invited to give a paper on “African Diasporas in the Indian Ocean: Past and Present,” Faculty Workshop, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University-Qatar, March 21-24.
2015 Invited to give a paper at the “Bearden in Global Context” symposium, Columbia University, February 21 (declined).
2014 UW Hilldale Distinguished Lecturer Grant (with Gail Geiger & Tom Dale) to bring Holland Cotter, NYTimes Art Critic. 
2014 Honorable Instructor award, Chadbourne Residence, UW-Madison.
2014 Consultant for the African Art Collection, Maxwell Museum, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
2014 Senior Research Fulbright grant to Morocco (Alternate – final decision spring/summer 2015).
2014 Invited to give a Bettman lecture at Columbia University in spring 2015 (postponed).
2014 Invited participant in the NYU conference/workshop entitled “How Migration Makes Meaning: Slavery and Abolition in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds,” Abu Dhabi, March 29-April 2.
2014 Recipient of the Leadership Award (Lifetime Achievement) from the Arts Council of the African Studies Association at the 16thTriennial Conference at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, March 20.
2013 International Studies, UW-Madison – Supplementary Funds for Burdick-Vary Symposium on “Embodied Knowledge: Sensory Studies in the 21stCentury,” to take place October 3, 2014. 
2013 Anonymous Fund, UW-Madison – Funds for Burdick-Varey Symposium on “Embodied Knowledge: Sensory Studies in the 21st Century,” to take place .
2013 Keynote speaker – UCLA Art History Graduate Student Association Symposium on “Sense*Ability: Multi-Perceptual Encounters with Art,” Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, .
2013 Appointed to the National Advisory Board, National Museum of African Art-Smithsonian Institution (3-year term).
2013 Invited faculty for Getty-funded project “Expanding Art History: Teaching Non-European Art at UNICAMP” (University of Campinas, Brazil).
2013 UW-Madison, African Studies Program-Faculty Research Grant – Egungun arts in Nigeria/Benin.
2013 Invited to serve as External Reviewer of curriculum for the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
2012  The Graduate School, UW-Madison -- Faculty Research Grant (PA and travel) to work on “Collaborative Creativity: Egungun Masquerades among the Yoruba.”
2012  Anonymous Fund, UW-Madison – Guests artists as part of Artist-in-Residence Program.
2012  The Graduate School, UW-M – Faculty Travel Grant to participate in the Venice Biennale, June 2013.
2012   Fulbright Specialist Program (for Indonesia and Pakistan).
2012 Arts Institute, UW-M, Artist-in-Residence Grant for Faisal Abdu’Allah, Spring 
2011 The Graduate School, UW-Madison -- Faculty Research Grant (PA) to work on the history of Siddi patchwork quilts in India.
2011 Brittingham Grant, UW-Madison – Visit of London-based artist Faisal Abduallah.
2011 Anonymous Fund, UW-Madison – “Look Look, Listen Listen,” 10-day program with Ghanaian artists Atta Kwami, Pamela Clarkson, and Koo Nimo.
2010 Senior Fellow (4-year term), the Institute for Research in the Humanities, UW-Madison.
2010 Anonymous Fund, UW-Madison – “Ways of Showing, Ways of Knowing,” Symposium on exhibiting African art in a museum, October 7-8, 2010
2009 Woodrow Wilson Foundation – Career Enhancement Conference (Mentor for Nancy Marie Mithlo), Princeton University, October 14-16.
2009 Digital Collections Grant, Memorial Library-UW-Madison [African Diaspora arts – 5,000 slides]
2009 The Graduate School, UW-Madison -- Faculty Research Grant to prepare a book on “The Senses in Understanding of African Art.”
2009 Robert & Avis Burke Lecturer, Art History, Indiana University, Nov. 6
2009 Alfred Z. Solomon Residency, Tang Museum of Art, Skidmore College, October 27-31.
2009 Senior Research Fellowship, Smithsonian Institution (NMAfA), summers 2010/11.
2009 Sainsbury Research Unit Fellowship, University of E. Anglia, Norwich, England – Spring, 2010
2008 Digital Collections Grant, Memorial Library, UW-Madison. 
2008 Donnelly Foundation Grant for African/American art exhibit, Avery Center, Charleston, SC (partial) 
2008 Morgridge Center, UW-Madison – Service-Learning special needs grant. 
2008 Anonymous Fund, UW-Madison – Porgramming for Mami Wata exhibition, Chazen Museum of Art, Fall.
2008 Aquatic Sciences Center-UW-Madison – Lecture series “Water Matters” for Mami Wata exhibit. 
2007 Jerrold Ziff Distinguished Art History Lecturer, UIUC-Champaign-Urbana.
2007 Nave Committee Award -- Afro-Cuba at the Crossroads: Arts, Culture, History Project – Fall. 
2007 Millard Meiss Grant, CAA-publication support for Sacred Waters edited volume.
2007 LACIS-UW-Madison - Tinker Visiting Professor nominee awarded grant for Fall 2007.
2007 Anonymous Fund, UW-Madison – Afro-Cuba at the Crossroads: Arts, Culture, History Project – Fall. 
2006 Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study and Conference Center
2005 The Graduate School , UW-Madison -- Faculty Travel Grant to the TADIA Conference on the African Diaspora in Asia , International Centre-Goa , India , January 9-14, 2006 .
2004 J. Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.
2004 American Institute of Indian Studies, Senior Research Fellowship, Part 3.
2003 Teaching and Technology Grant, LSS-UW-Madison.
2003 Nave Fund, UW-Madison, Sin Fronteras; Bridges to the Caribbean Project grant.
2003 Wisconsin Humanities Council, Sin Fronteras; Bridges to the Caribbean Project grant.
2003 Anonymous Fund, UW-Madison, Sin Fronteras; Bridges to the Caribbean Project grant.
2003 Morgridge Center, UW-Madison, service-learning course grant.
2003 Center for South Asian Studies, UW-Madison, Faculty Research Grant.
2003 Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship, Republic of Benin.
2002 The Graduate School, UW-Madison, Faculty Research Grant
2002 American Institute of Indian Studies, Senior Research Fellowship, Part 2.
2002 Elected Board Member, Wisconsin Humanities Council.
2002 Resident Fellow, Institute for Research in the Humanities, UW-Madison, Fall 2002.
2001 The Graduate School, UW-Madison, Collaborative Faculty Research Grant (with Sonya Clark).
2001 American Institute of Indian Studies, Senior Research Fellowship on the arts, culture and history of Africans in India.
2001 Brittingham Award to bring distinguished museum director, Doran H. Ross.
2000 Caribbean Resource Center Fellowship, University of Puerto Rico African Diaspora archival and field research (July).
2000 Ford Foundation-Afro-American Studies, UW-Madison - Beaded Prayers Community Project (with Prof. Sonya Clark).
2000 Hilldale Faculty/Student Research Grant on ?Afro-Bolivians: History, Arts and Identity.? (Megan Scanlon)
2000 Governor's Humanities Awards, Wisconsin Humanities Council, for excellence in Humanities programming ( Beads, Body And Soulexhibition).
2000 The Graduate School, UW-Madison, Faculty Research and Travel Grants (2).
1999 InTime Faculty Grant (Technology in Teaching), UW-Madison.
1999 WebCT Faculty Grant (Website Development), UW-Madison.
1999 American Institute of Indian Studies Fellowship, 6-months research on African Diaspora in South Asia.
1999 Luther S. and Dorothy C. Cressman Professor in the Humanities Lectures, University of Oregon, Eugene.
1999 Brittingham Award to bring distinguished lecturer (with Prof. Sonya Clark).
1999 Arts Institute, UW-Madison for bead artist residencies (with Prof. Sonya Clark).
1999 K. Knapp Bequest grant for performances related to Beads, Body, And Soulexhibition.
1999 Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Teaching, UW-Madison.
1998 Invited to be A.W. Mellon Visiting Professor, Tulane University, New Orleans for Spring 1999. [declined]
1997 South African Social Research Council, three-week sponsored lecture tour to universities in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, and Durban, South Africa, March 10-30, 1997.
1997 NEA grant to support publication of the all-color book/catalog Beads, Body, And Soul: Art And Light In The Yoruba Universe(Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History).
1997 Steenbock Summer Grant for graduate student advising, UW-Madison.
1997 NEH Fellowship for University Teachers, for teaching/research in Brazil.
1997 Fulbright Research/Teaching Award, Brazil.
1997 UW-Madison Faculty Research Grant, Brazil.
1997 Nominated for a Distinguished Teaching Professorship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
1996 Fulbright Grant, The American Republics Research Program -- Brazil. [awarded but funding eliminated]
1995 Anonymous Fund, UW-M, grant for "Building Beautiful Bridges between Brazil and Wisconsin: Arts Festival."
1994 Hilldale Faculty/Student Research Grant on "Defining the Corpus of Nok Sculpture." (Lori Dumm)
1994 The Graduate School, UW-M, Faculty Research Grant, Spring and Summer 1995.
1994 J. Carter Brown Library Fellowship, Brown University.
1994 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship.
1993 Academic Specialist Grant, USIA (Museum development in Côte d' Ivoire).
1992-93 NEH Fellow, The Newberry Library, Chicago.
1992 University of Wisconsin-System. Faculty Development Grant to develop curriculum on the Arts of the African Diaspora.
1992 University of Wisconsin-Madison. Graduate School Faculty Research Grant for completion of Research Tape Transcripts and writing of book chapter.
1991 Appointed to the Editorial Board of ART BULLETIN for 3 year term.
1991 Invited participant, Rockefeller Foundation Conference on Museums in Africa, New York, April 3.
1991 University of Wisconsin-Madison. Faculty Research Grant for preparation of book manuscript.
1990 Discussant, Scholarly Roundtable on the Africa Project, Field Museum of National History, Chicago, June 28.
1990 Invited presenter, Conference on Yoruba Art - ONA, Fine Arts Department, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria.
1990 Faculty Commencement Speaker, College of Arts and Sciences, Cleveland State University.
1990 National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Stipend to write chapters of THE CHAMELEON'S CLOTHES: ART, HISTORY, AND ETHOS AMONG THE IJEBU YORUBA.
1989 Invited presenter, 1st European Colloquium on the Arts of Black Africa, Paris, Musee National des Arts Africains et Oceaniens, March 10-11, 1990.
1989 Panelist, National Endowment for the Humanities.
1989 Distinguished Scholar Award, College of Arts and Sciences, Cleveland State University.
1988 National Endowment for the Humanities, a major grant to implement the travelling exhibition Yoruba: Nine Centuries Of African Art And Thought.
1988 The Rockefeller Foundation, a major grant supporting the exhibition " Introspectives: Contemporary Art By Americans And Brazilians Of African Descent," The California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles.
1988 Cleveland State University, Senior Faculty Research Expense Grant (Proposal Title: "Selection of Objects for the exhibition Yoruba: Nine Centuries Of African Art And Thought").
1987 New York State Council on the Arts grant for the planning of the travelling exhibition Yoruba: Nine Centuries Of African Art And Thought.
1987 Invited to be Visiting Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, Winter and Spring Quarters 1988.
1987 Invited participant at the 3rd International Seminar on "Ere Ibeji: Twin Memorial Figures of the Yoruba," University of Maryland, College Park, April 9.
1987 Invited participant, International Conference on African Material Culture, Bellagio, Italy, May 19-23, 1988.
1987 Invited speaker, Symposium on the State of the Discipline as part of the opening activities for the National Museum of African Art, Washington, D. C., September 16.
1986 Andrew W. Mellon Senior Fellowship, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
1986 Invited speaker, the First Annual Thomas Munro Memorial Lecture, The Cleveland Museum of Art.
1985 Andrew W. Mellon Senior Fellowship, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
1984 National Endowment for the Humanities, Basic Research Grant (with Margaret Thompson Drewal and John Pemberton (III). (Proposal Title: "Human Creativity and Cultural Dynamics in an African Society: Art and Religion of the Yoruba, Part II")
1984 Appointed Regional Editor, Journal Of Cultures And Ideas(University of Ife, Nigeria).
1984 Finalist for the 1983 M. J. Herskovits Award for Gelede: Art And Female Power Among The Yoruba.
1984 Invited participant, College Art Association planning session for Symposium on "Art History and Anthropology," J. Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles.
1984 Invited participant, J. Paul Getty Trust Art and Architecture Thesaurus Project, Bennington, Vermont.
1983 Cleveland State University, Research Expense Grant (Proposal Title: "Mami Wata: Art and Belief in West Africa")
1982 Invited participant at the 2nd International Seminar on "Ere Ibeji: Twin Memorial Figures of the Yoruba," Nigerian National Museum, Lagos, March 10-14.
1981 National Endowment for the Humanities, Basic Research Grant (with Margaret Thompson Drewal and John Pemberton III). (Proposal Title: "Human Creativity and Cultural Dynamics in an African Society: Art and Religion of the Yoruba")
1981 Cleveland State University, Research Expense Grant (Class II). (Proposal Title: "Yoruba Art, Artists, and Patrons")
1981 Cleveland State University, Faculty Publications Support Grant for "Funds for the production of B&W prints for forthcoming book GELEDE: A STUDY OF ART AND FEMALE POWER AMONG THE YORUBA."
1981 Invited participant at the International Seminar on "Ere Ibeji: Twin Memorial Figures among the Yoruba," Nigerian National Museum Lagos, April 13-18.
1981 Alternate, Senior Fulbright Award for Research in Africa.
1980 Cleveland State University, Senior Faculty Research Grant (Class I). (Proposal Title: "The Documentation of Yoruba Art in Major European Museums")
1980 Cleveland State University, Faculty Publication Support Grant for "Research film to accompany exhibition at The High Museum of Art, Atlanta."
1979 Georgia Council on the Arts & Humanities Grant in support of the exhibition and catalogue for AFRICAN ARTISTRY: TECHNIQUE AND AESTHETICS IN YORUBA SCULPTURE, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
1979 Cleveland State University, Development Foundation. (Proposal Title: "Additional Acquisitions for the CSU Collection of African, Afro-Brazilian, and Afro-American Art")
1977 National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellowship for Independent Study and Research. (Proposal Title: "Social Realities Affecting Art in Yoruba Culture")
1976 Cleveland State University, University Budget Committee Grant of supplementary funds for publication of CSU permanent collection catalog.
1975 Cleveland State University, Center for Effective Learning Grant to support publication of catalog for CSU permanent collection of African, Afro-Brazilian, and Afro-American Art.
1975 The Institute for Intercultural Studies, Inc., N. Y., to continue iconographic study of the arts of the Ohori Yoruba, Fall.
1975 Cleveland State University, Faculty Research Initiation Grant. (Proposal Title: "The Origins of Afro-Brazilian Art" carried out in Benin (R.P.B.), Nigeria, and Togo, Summer)
1974 Cleveland State University, grant for the purchase of African art for permanent University collection (written with Dillard Poole, Director, Afro-American Cultural Center, CSU).
1974 Cleveland State University, Center for Effective Learning Grant for survey and production of slides for courses in African, Oceanic, and American Indian art.
1974 Cleveland State University, Faculty Research Initiation Grant. (Proposal Title: "Yoruba Artistic Retentions in the New World")
1973 The Institute for Intercultural Studies, Inc., N.Y., for ethnographic film project among the Ohori Yoruba.
1970 Columbia University Institute of African Studies, dissertation research grant.
1970 The Institute for Intercultural Studies, Inc., N. Y., dissertation research grant.
1968 Columbia University, NDFL Foreign Language Fellowship.
1966 International House - NYC, Residence Fellowship.

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PUBLIC LECTURES:

2023 Guest speaker in conversation with Adama Delphine Fawundu and C.D. Dawson on her exhibition In the Spirit of Àṣẹ, the Newark Museum of Art, November 2.
2023 Guest speaker in conversation with Kymberly S. Newberry, Mt. Holyoke College Museum of Art, “The Tragedies of History, and the Triumphs of Art,” October 4.
2023 Guest speaker, Opening of art exhibitions by Daniel Minter and Eneida Sanches, Lynden Sculpture Gardens, Milwaukee, WI, June 18
2023 Guest speaker, City Gallery, Charleston, SC – Celebrating Black Mermaids: From Africa to America exhibition.
2023 Guest speaker, Iowa State University Museum of Art (Joyce J. Scott exhibit Messages) (Zoom).
2022 Broadcast conversation with Dr. Sauda Smith, H. Lavity Stout Community College, British Virgin Islands.
2021 "The History, Arts, and Culture of Siddis (Africans) in India," A Zoom lecture (with Sarah K. Khan and Pashington Obeng) for Indigo Arts Alliance and the Cove Street Arts gallery, Portland, ME, March 11.
2020 Guest speakers for online classes at Columbia University (CDDawson) and UW-Madison (Laurie Beth Clark and Fernanda Villarroel)
2020  Center for the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts (CASVA), National Gallery of Art, DC.
2019  Margaret Herz Demant Lecture, Detroit Institute of Arts.
2019 Lecture/Performance at danceGATHERING 2019, Lagos-Nigeria.
2019 Center for Contemporary Art (CCA), Lagos-Nigeria.
2018  Ruth Davis Design Gallery – Friends of SoHE-UW-Madsion.
2018  Amherst College, MA
2017 UW-Madison (African Studies Program, and Agon-Research in the Arts)
2017 St. Louis Art Museum
2017 Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Habana, Cuba.
2017 City College, NY.
2017 Musee Quai Branly, Paris.
2016 University of New Mexico-Albuquerque
2015 Center for South Asia, UW-Madison
2015 African American Museum in Philadephia
2015 School of Foreign Service-Georgetown, Qatar
2014 Opening Gala, Prospect3, New Orleans, LA
2014 Burdick-Vary Symposium (Organizer & Moderator)
2014 Center for Visual Cultures-UW-Madison
2014 Brazilian Endowment for the Arts, NY
2013 Fowler Museum-UCLA
2013 Friends of African Art, Santa Barbara, CA
2013 UW-M, “Evolving Directions in Academic Research and Resources,” Memorial Library
2013 UW-M, Conference on the Public Humanities, Center for the Humanities
2013 Kumasi National University of Science and Technology, Ghana
2012 Princeton University, NJ
2012  Spelman College, GA
2012  James Madison University, VA
2012  UT-Austin, TX
2011 Wabash College, IN
2011 Indianapolis Museum of Art
2011 Pennsylvania State University (3)
2011 Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco
2011 New York University
2011 Detroit Institute of Arts
2011 Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond
2011   Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NY. (3)
2010 Michigan State University
2010  Stanford University (2)
2010 UC-Santa Barbara
2010 British Museum, London
2009 Indiana University, IN
2009 Skidmore College, NY
2009 St. Lawrence University, NY
2009 Fundacion Marcelino Botin, Santander, Spain
2009 National Museum of African Art-Smithsonian Institution
2009 University of Maryland, College Park
2009 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
2009 VCU-African/African American Religions class
2008 Several lectures on Mami Wata, Chazen Museum of Art
2008 Fowler Museum-UCLA-teachers workshop
2008 Newark Museum, New Jersey
2007 Edgewood College, Madison
2007 California College of the Arts, San Francisco
2007 Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco
2005 Health Sciences Learning Center , UW-Madison
2005 South African National Museum , Cape Town , South Africa
2005 Haffenreffer Museum , Brown University
2005 Phoebe Hearst Museum , UC-Berkeley
2005 School of Creative Media - City University of Hong Kong , China
2005 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture - Mellon Humanities Summer Institute
2005 Museum of Fine Art, Boston
2005 University of New England, ME
2005 St. Mary's Hall, San Antonio, TX
2005 University of Florida-Gainesville
2004 National University of Benin , Abomey-Calavi
2003 River Arts Center, Sauk Prairie, WI.
2003 African and African Diaspora Film Festival, Santa Fe, NM
2002 Loyola University, Chicago
2002 John Hope Franklin Institute, Duke University
2002 Textile Study Society, New York
2001 Valmir Capoeira School, Salvador, Brazil
2001 Transylvania University, Lexington, KY (3-lecture series)
2001 Siddi Arts Workshop, Mundgod, India
2000 Musee Dapper, Paris
2000 Museum of American Folk Art, New York
2000 St. Thomas University, Minneapolis/St. Paul
2000 Lehman College-CU, NY
2000 BOSE, Making Connections Program, NY
2000 Studio Museum in Harlem, NY
2000 Museum for African Art, NY
2000 Art Institute of Chicago.
1999 Los Angeles County Museum of Art
1999 University of Oregon, Eugene.
1999 Emory University, M.C. Carlos Museum
1998 American Museum of Natural History.
1997-8. Numerous public lectures on African performance arts in Salvador, Brasilia, and São Luis Maranhão, Brazil.
1997 3-week sponsored lecture tour, universities in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, and Durban, South Africa.
1996 Friends of Ethnic Arts, San Francisco
1996 Portland State University
1995 Summerstage - Africa Fete, NY
1995 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NY
1995 Princeton University
1995 Indiana University-Ft. Wayne
1995 Louisville Museum of Art, Kentucky
1995 Universite de Saint-Louis, Senegal
1995 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1994 UC-Berkeley Museum of Art
1994 National Museum of African Art
1994 UCLA - Fowler Museum
1994 UC-San Diego
1994 Carleton College
1994 Ft. Wayne Museum of Art
1994 Indiana University - Ft. Wayne
1993 North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh
1993 Bowers Museum of Art, Santa Ana, California
1993 Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA
1993 Krannert Gallery, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana (invited)
1993 The Newberry Library, Chicago (Colloquia)
1992 The Newberry Library, Chicago (Fellows Seminar)
1992 Elvehjem Museum of Art
1992 National Museum of African Art
1991 Harvard University
1991 Boston Museum of Fine Arts
1991 High Museum of Art, Atlanta
1991 University of Iowa
1991 The Art Institute of Chicago
1991 The New Orleans Museum of Art
1991 Craft Alliance, St. Louis
1990 The University of Florida, Gainesville
1990 Miami University, Coral Gables
1990 National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution (2 lectures)
1990 Northwestern University
1990 University of Wisconsin, Madison
1990 The Art Institute of Chicago (series of 5 lectures)
1989 University of Michigan
1989 The Cleveland Museum of Art
1989 Southern University, Baton Rouge
1989 National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution
1989 The California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles
1989 Amherst College
1989 The Toledo Museum of Art
1988 May Weber Museum of Art, Chicago
1988 Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia
1988 Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
1988 San Diego Museum of Art
1988 Art Institute of Chicago
1988 Northwestern University
1988 California State University, Long Beach
1988 Museum of Cultural History, UCLA
1988 Los Angeles County Museum of Art
1988 UCLA seminar on African Art and Social Control
1988 Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University, NY
1987 Artsweek, Connecticut Public Television (Channel 49)
1986 USIS, Lagos, Nigeria
1986 Neuberger Museum, SUNY, Purchase, NY
1986 Port Washington Library, NY
1986 Columbia University, Associates in Primitive and Pre-Columbian Art
1986 The Cleveland Museum of Art
1986 The Birmingham Museum of Art
1985 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1985 The Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, N.Y.
1985 Cleveland Museum of Natural History (5-part lecture series)
1985 Indianapolis Museum of Art (invited)
1985 Indiana University, Bloomington
1985 Amherst College
1984 National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C.
1984 Amherst College
1984 The Cleveland Institute of Art
1983 Seattle Art Museum
1983 University of California, Santa Barbara
1983 Museum of Cultural History, U.C.L.A.
1983 Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
1981 The High Museum of Art, Atlanta
1981 Amherst College
1980 Museum fur Volkerkunde, Leipzig, East Germany
1980 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1980 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie
1980 Ohio Art Education Association Conference, Cleveland
1980 The High Museum of Art, Atlanta
1979 The Cleveland Institute of Art
1979 Indiana University, Seminar in the African Humanities, Bloomington
1978 Amherst College
1978 Wayne State University, Detroit
1977 Cleveland Museum of Natural History
1977 Kresge Art Gallery, Michigan State University, East Lansing
1975 Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge
1975 Indiana University, Seminar in the African Humanities, Bloomington
1974 Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City
1974 Boston University
1974 Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
1973 Institute of African Studies, Columbia University
1972 Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey
1972 Essex County College, Newark
1972 Seton Hall University, New Jersey
1970 Harlem-Morningside Lecture Series, N.Y.C.

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MEMBERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:

Indigo Arts Alliance (Portland-Maine) – member, Advisory Board
West African Research Association (WARA) – Board Member
National Museum of African Art-Smithsonian Institution (National Advisory Board (second 3-year term)
BLAC Foundation (Board of Trustees Member)
College Art Association
African Studies Association
Arts Council of the African Studies Association (founding member, Board of Directors)
Society for Africanist Archeology
West African Research Association
American Society for Ethno-history
Midwest Art History Society
The African Diaspora in Asia (Network) - TADIA
Wisconsin Humanities Council (Board Member)
The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
Congress on Research in Dance

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COURSES:

At H, Lavitty Stout Community College, Tortola, British Virgin Islands (2022-2024)
    Workshop for Visual Artists
    Class/Workshop – African Inspirations, Diaspora Creations: Arts and Architectures
At Amherst College (March-May 2023)
    Survey of African Art & Myth, Ritual & Iconography in West Africa
Exhibition Course 506 – Planning and mounting Egungun exhibit at Design Gallery, UW-Madison
Curatorial Studies Colloquium – Fall 2014/Spring 2016 (coordinator/instructor)
FauHaus: Bodies, Minds, Senses and the Arts (with UW Arts Institute Artist-in=Residence Faisal Abdu’Allah).
Honors Undergraduate Seminar – Ways of Showing, Ways of Knowing: Exhibiting African Arts
First Year Interest Group (FIG) seminar – Exhibiting Arts, Culture and History in a Museum
Graduate Seminar: Practicum in Art History: Bibliography, Historiography, Methods
Graduate Seminar: Diaspora Dynamics
Graduate Seminar: Arts of Masking in Africa and Diaspora
Graduate Seminar: Imaging the West in Africa, Asia, and the Americas
Graduate Seminar: Theories & Field Methods
Graduate Seminar: African Art--Image and Idea
Graduate Seminar: Yoruba Art History and Philosophy
Graduate Seminar: African Antiquity
Graduate Seminar: Art and Artists in Africa
Undergraduate/Graduate Seminar: African Masking and the Senses
Undergraduate/Graduate Seminar: Carnival Arts of the African Diaspora - Resistance and Empowerment
Undergraduate/Graduate Seminar: Museum Studies I & II - Exhibiting Africa, Practicing Theory
Undergraduate Seminar: Yoruba Beads, Body & Soul
Undergraduate Seminar: African Arts of the Yoruba
Introduction to African Art and Architecture
Art and History in Africa
Contemporary Art in Africa
Arts of the African Diaspora
African Art: Paleolithic to the Rise of West African Empires
African Art: The Rise of West African Empires to the Beginning of the Colonial Era
Africa: An Introductory Survey through the Arts
Afro-American Art History
Arts of the Pacific, Native America, and Africa
Arts of the South Pacific
Oceanic and Native American Art
Art History and Appreciation
Western Art History: Renaissance to Present

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LANGUAGES:

French (fluent);
Yoruba (good);
Portuguese (good);
Spanish (good).

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OTHER:

2021 Consultant, NEH and NEA grants for an Antebellum House Museum exhibition of African-American blacksmiths, New Orleans, LA
2020 Consultant, NEH grant application for an Antebellum House Museum, NOLA
2020 Reviewer, candidates for tenured position in African Diaspora religions, Harvard Divinity School
2020 Guest speaker for online classes: UW-M Visual Culture (3/26; 4/15); Columbia U African Diaspora Arts & Cultures (4/21); UW-M MA defense (4/7)
2020 Reviewer, Modern Endangered Archives Program, UCLA Libraries (African Studies Institute-University of Ibadan, Nigeria – Audiovisual Collections)
2018-2020 Advisory Circle for Indigo Arts Alliance, Portland, ME
1991-2019 Donations of books, films, research materials to universities in Africa and the Eliot Elisofon Photo Archives-National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC.  
1991-2019 As Adjunct Curator of African Art at the Chazen Museum of Art, I have added 176 works to the collection.
2018 Consultant to African art Curator, Musée des Confluences, Lyons, France.
2018 Consultant to Egungun exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum (opening January 2019).
2015-8 Consultant for University of Nebraska – Lincoln—Digital Commons - Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings -- EXPLORING ORIGINS: THE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS OF TWO YORUBA MASQUERADE COSTUMES AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART -- Rebecca Summerour
2017 External examiner for the PhD thesis of Mathodi Motsamayi, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg in South Africa.
2016 See article about our (Drewal & Khan) work on Siddi quilts written by Makale Faber Cullen, “Kawandi: Quilts of Karnataka,” in Uppercase, #30, Summer, pp.100-105.
2016 Oral History (Peace Corps) donated to the John F. Kennedy Library-National Archives. 
1974-present Field photographs and films in many museum installations of African art (de Young-San Francisco, Fowler Museum-UCLA, St. Louis Art Museum, High Museum-Atlanta, Cleveland Museum of Art, Newark Museum, Pitt-Rivers Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Seattle Art Museum, National Museum of African Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, New Orleans Museum of Art, Museo del Mon-Barcelona, Quai Branly-Paris, etc.)
2013 Reviewer for the HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory (CNRS-Paris, France)
2013 Curriculum advisor, Art Department, Kumasi National University of Science and Technology, Ghana
2007-present Consultant to various art museums (de Young, Honolulu, Art Institute of Chicago, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Milwaukee, etc.) on their African art collections. 
2007-present Undergraduate Research Mentor, UW-M.
1980-present Field photos in more than 300 publications.
1985-present Donations of books, field research data, and art to archives, libraries and museums: African and African Diaspora slides (19,000) and B&W negatives (46,000) to the Eliot Elisofon Photo Archive-National Museum of African Art-Smithsonian Institution; photographs (200) to the Robert Goldwater Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; slides (900) of African Diaspora Images to the Digital Collections, UW-Madison; books (1280), serials (112) and films (6) to the Kohler Art Library, UW-Madison; African art to the Fowler Museum-UCLA and the Chazen Museum of Art, UW-Madison.
2011 Filmed interviews on various African art topics, Indianapolis Museum of Art (http://www.artbabble.org)
2011 NEH advisor, African art re-installation project, Baltimore Museum of Art.
2010-11 Consultant for international exhibition on “Global Mermaids and the film “Mermaids: The Documentary” (by Nicole Cattell).
2008 Coordinator, North America –Festival Internacional de Tradiciones AfroAmericanas (FITA), Caracas, Venezuela.
2007 Artist (with Brenda Baker) of site-specific artwork called “Home Divided” as part of International Forest Art project of the Arts Institute-UW and visiting artist Ute Ritschel – Raven Trail, National Park, Minocqua,WI.
2007 Arranged donation and catalogued collection of 500 slides of Roger Bisson, Catholic missionary in West Africa (Benin, Togo, Burkina, Mali -- 1950s-1980s).
2004-present Artist, unique furniture and homes for birds (Avian Architecture Series)
2004 Consultant -- NEH-funded permanent exhibitions of African art at the Denver Museum of Art, the Newark Museum, and the Detroit Institute of Art.
2004 Consultant -- Musee Dapper and Musee du Quai Branly in Paris – assisting with preparations for an Afro- Brazilian art exhibition (Dapper) and new permanent installation of African art (Branly).
2000-present External examiner – PhD candidates in South Africa, UK, and France.
1985-present Member, Editorial Board of African Arts
1970-present Field Research – Africa/African Diaspora arts – Nigeria (1970-1, 1973, 1975, 1977-78, 1982, 1986, 2019), Benin (1970-71, 1973, 2004-5, 2010), Togo (1975, 2004-5, 2010), Ghana (1967, 1975, 2010, 2012-13), Cote d’Ivoire (1993), Senegal (1995), Mali/Burkina Faso (2011-12), Morocco (1997; 2017), South Africa (1997, 2005), Uganda (1969), Brazil (1974, 1987, 1988, 1993, 1997-8, 2000), Mexico (1995, 2008, 2009), Cuba (1999, 2000, 2015), Puerto Rico (2002, 2009), Panama (2007), Venezuela (2007, 2008), Turkey (1996, 2009, 2012, 2015), Macao (2005), Pakistan (2004), and India (2001, 2004, 2006, 2015), USA (2014).
1970-2019 Archival/Museum Research – UK (1971, 1980, 1995, 2009); France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland (1980, 2000, 2004, 2009, 2012); India (2001, 2004-5, 2006).
1980-present Publications Referee – Press of the University of Florida; University of Chicago Press; Routledge; Prentiss Hall; University of Washington Press; University of Colorado Press; University of North Carolina Press; Indiana University Press; University of Illinois Press; Lexington Press; Temple University Press; Textile: Journal of Cloth and Culture; Folklore (Warburg Institute, London, UK)
2001-2002 Curatorial instructor for "Revealing Forms: African Art in the Elvehjem Museum Collection."
2000-2002 Consultant – Milwaukee Museum of Art.
1992 Coordinator/author of a major proposal to establish a Fund for African Archaeology (pending).
1991-present Adjunct Curator for African Art, Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Arrange new acquisitions, coordinate donations of African art to collection (total over 150), design and coordinate, all programming for African Reflections: Art from Northeastern Zaire (1993), and Beads, Body, and Soul: Art and Light in the Yoruba Universe (1999-2000), and Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas.
1985-1993 Curator and Consultant on African art for the Cleveland Museum of Art; Neuberger Museum of Art;  Toledo Museum of Art.
1974-88 Development of a collection of 140 African, Afro-Brazilian, and Afro-American art objects at Cleveland State University.
1965, '78 Apprenticeships with traditional Yoruba carvers, Abeokuta and Ilaro, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Updated February 2024

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