The Tragedies of History and the Triumphs of Art

Join us for a conversation between Visiting Lecturer in Art History Kymberly S. Newberry FP ’16 and renowned art historian Dr. Henry J. Drewal, Emeritus Professor in African Art at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. This event celebrates the opening of the exhibition I will spatter the sky utterly: Romuald Hazoumè curated by Kymberly S. Newberry.

Followed by a reception in the Hinchcliff Reception Hall.

This program was made possible by the Louise R. Weiser Memorial Lecture Fund, and is co-sponsored with the MHC Department of Art History.

Henry John Drewal is Emeritus Professor of African and African Diaspora Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before completing his PhD at Columbia University, he held apprenticeships with Yoruba sculptors in Nigeria (Ṣanusi and Ogundipe). Drewal taught at Cleveland State University, was the Evjue-Bascom Professor of Art History and Afro-American Studies at UW-Madison, and served as a curator at numerous museums over the course of his career. He has published extensively, including his most recent book, Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths (2019), and has produced films on African and African Diaspora arts. His work has been supported by fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Fulbright Program, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts. Drewal's current research approach (termed Sensiotics) continues to explore the role of the senses and sense-abilities in shaping arts, persons, cultures, and histories.

Kymberly S. Newberry, FP '16, earned her B.A. in International Relations from Mount Holyoke, where as a McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives Fellow she was a visiting lecturer in Istanbul, Turkey. She completed her M.A. in African American Studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is currently a PhD Candidate there in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro American Studies. Newberry’s research explores contemporary modes of artistic production in Africa and Museology as it relates to African art. Her dissertation, “Seeing This Makes Me Sweat Big Drops: Dilemmas in Curating/Translating African Art in American Art Museums,” confronts the dilemmas of reception, interpretation and contextualization of African art once deracinated and resettled in Western art museums. In 2007, Newberry founded "Siggi Dimanche," an annual event that celebrates the thirty-one French speaking African countries and the French speaking African Diaspora.