Browse Exhibits (3 total)

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Community-Based Representation: A Study of Japan and West Africa

These works from the Berea College Art Collection explore how many consider Western ideals about portraiture and portrayal to be universal and how this bias is problematic. The chosen works explore idealism as a means of expressing a cultural group’s desired outward image and beauty standards. While this section aims to subvert the unquestioned assumption of the Western gaze, it is not meant to be a comprehensive study of Non-Western representation. 

The works present were created in Japan and West Africa. These art pieces reveal the focus on community over individualism and often communicate group associations through tribal markings or societal beauty standards. Within the cultures represented, it is not customary for human portrayal to be rendered as a particular individual and his/her unique physical characteristics, but rather the traits that assert his/her determined cultural significance.

In fact, very few of these depictions include markers of individuality that would suggest a specific person. Noh masks, used in Japanese theater performance, communicate specific archetypes – the ideals of beauty or wisdom, for example. The Japanese prints, as well, use cultural markers particular to the region to imbue these portrayals with meaning. The West African masks communicate beauty ideals and use stylized tribal markings to indicate a close-knit group. All together, these works indicate the importance of archetypes and recognizable community standards to communicate meaning within a cohesive cultural group.

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Decolonizing Art Museum Practices

Museums are notoriously known for being sophisticated places where important moments of human history are filed and stored. They are proposed to be spaces that catalyze critical dialogue and stimulate academic endeavors, but they have not always been as such. Previously defined by the International Council of Museums (ICOM), museums are spaces that "conserve, collect, communicate, and exhibits the tangible and intangible objects of our human history and its environment for the purposes education, study, and enjoyment." With the expectation of displaying histories to inform and entertain the public, some human histories are only routinely explored, some memoirs merely mentioned, or indefinitely omitted. Although filled with educated individuals diligently creating exhibits intended to teach, museums still face systemic barriers that do not allow them to uphold and sustain ethical curating practices. Rather than being an intellectually neutral site, museums persist in being physical representations of the lingering aftermath of colonialism. 

Although the previous definition is somewhat prolix and seems moderately correct, it fails to address the social, ethical, political, and environmental responsibilities that museums must uphold as an intellectual institution within a modern 21st-century society. This was until recently. In September of 2019, ICOM proposed to edit the current interpretation of museums and reconstruct a definition that embraced cosmopolitanism and transnational identity. According to the newly nominated definition of a museum, what you think a museum is, might not be one when considering the current ICOM definition. The International Committee of Museums (ICOM) considers this their definition:

"Museums are democratizing, inclusive, and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue about the pasts and the futures. Acknowledging and addressing the conflicts and challenges of the present, they hold artifacts and specimens in trust for society, safeguard diverse memories for future generations and guarantee equal rights and equal access to heritage for all people.

Museums are not for profit. They are participatory and transparent, and work in active partnership with and for diverse communities to collect, preserve, research, interpret, exhibit, and enhance understandings of the world, aiming to contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality, and planetary wellbeing."

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The conception of this new ICOM definition of museums inspired the production of this specific art exhibit that centers on pieces sourced from the Berea College Art collection and the Special Collections at Hutchins Library. Intentionally curated in a way that upholds the unique responsibilities of a museum, this exhibit intends to directly address and question the functions and the integrity of a museum in a way that allows viewers to think about the methodical obligations of museums.

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Who Was Doris Ulmann?

Doris Ulmann was an American photographer who dedicated her career to documenting the disappearing traditions of the Appalachian and Southern Highlands regions. Raised in New York, Ulmann began her training under Clarence White. She later became one of the first students to attend the Clarence H. White School of Photography. Having obtained this education, she decided that photography was her passion and began traveling the United States photographing rural populations. This journey led her to the South, where she met the Gullah Geechee and Appalachian peoples, whom she would later become best known for photographing. Ulmann worked with the author Julia Peterkin to create a book of pictorial studies of African Americans in the south, titled Roll, Jordan, Roll.

Throughout her career as a photographer, Doris Ulmann worked to capture what she perceived to be dying traditions of the Appalachian Region. Although she photographed both children and young adults, during her time in Appalachia the majority of her pictures focused on elders. Ulmann’s fascination with age sprouted from the idea that aged faces represented knowledge, experience, and a sense of maturity.

Her passion for Appalachian people led her to Berea College, where the college assisted her in documenting the crafts and traditions found in the Berea, Kentucky, and the surrounding region. As a result of this partnership, she left a monetary bequest to Berea College upon her death in 1934, as well as more than 3,000 of her photographs. This gift led to the construction of a new gallery space on the college’s campus, which was dedicated to Doris Ulmann and her work documenting Appalachian people and their traditions.

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