Fowler Museum Research Articles

Photo Cameroon: Studio Portraiture, 1970s-1990s

Photo Cameroon: Studio Portraiture, 1970s-1990s

Iklan Aesthetics in Niger: Identity and Adornment from Servility to Self-agency

<i>Iklan</i> Aesthetics in Niger: Identity and Adornment from Servility to Self-agency

Excellent!: Textiles from Mali

Excellent!: Textiles from Mali

Doran Ross: The Scholar of Akan Art

Doran Ross: The Scholar of Akan Art

An Unwavering Passion: Doran Ross's Scholarship on Asafo Flags

An Unwavering Passion: Doran Ross's Scholarship on Asafo Flags

Continental Collaboration: Consulting, Institution Building, and Mentoring Across Africa

Continental Collaboration: Consulting, Institution Building, and Mentoring Across Africa

Doran H. Ross

Doran H. Ross

Doran H. Ross: Generosity. Intellect. Passion.

Doran H. Ross: Generosity. Intellect. Passion.

Remembering a Great Man: A Conversation with Kwame Akoto of Almighty God Art Works

Remembering a Great Man: A Conversation with Kwame Akoto of Almighty God Art Works

Doran Ross, Our Mentor and Friend

Doran Ross, Our Mentor and Friend

Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity

Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity

Doran H. Ross: His Fabulous Fowler Years

Doran H. Ross: His Fabulous Fowler Years

Doran—The Elephant-in-Chief

How can I forget that Akan proverb, When the elephant steps on a trap, it does not spring shut (Fig. 1), which I picked up from Doran's 1982 article “The Verbal Art of Akan Linguist Staffs” in African Arts. I wanted to know this guy who shared my interest in African proverbs, especially as they infuse some humor into African art studies. The articleis still my favorite of all his works and has become a staple in my “African Arts and Orature” course to this day.When I finally met Doran at one of our ACASA Triennial meetings, I discovered he was a splendid man, of great intellect and big heart. It was my privilege to know him through most of the years he served as deputy director and director of the Fowler Museum. He combined with his charm an unlimited energy and the highest integrity. From the exhibitions that he curated, one saw that he was a man of superlatively high standards and boundless enthusiasm for whatever task he took in hand. The metaphorical elephant touched nothing that he didn't brighten and better.

The Doctor, Ghana, and Me

The Doctor, Ghana, and Me

Crowning Achievements: African Arts of Dressing the Head

Crowning Achievements: African Arts of Dressing the Head

Doran Hrothgar Ross Scholar, Trickster, Connoisseur

Doran Hrothgar Ross Scholar, Trickster, Connoisseur

Asking Different Questions: Case Studies in Collaborative Research from the Fowler Museum at UCLA

Asking Different Questions: Case Studies in Collaborative Research from the Fowler Museum at UCLA

Under Oshun’s Gaze: Africana religions as a model for repatriation

ABSTRACT Questions about museums’ responsibilities to return looted African religious artifacts in their collections continue to create a number of challenges for US museums. This article assesses these challenges from the perspective of the Brooklyn Museum and the Fowler Museum at UCLA. While pioneering two different strategies, they both reimagine the restitution process as one where source communities and museum professionals work collaboratively together to cultivate relationships around the religious cosmologies of Africana religions and provide important case studies into the processes by which museums might move toward “propatriation”, a process that involves commissioning new artistic creations and repairing relationships. Ultimately, the Brooklyn Museum and the Fowler Museum demonstrate how the religious contexts of African ritual objects can serve as important catalysts for the transformation of museums into ritualized healing spaces where the remaking of relationships is made possible as is the recognition of museums’ participation in colonial violence and theft.

Some Preliminary Responses to “Beyond Single Stories”

Some Preliminary Responses to “Beyond Single Stories”

Collections Care Challenges and Innovations for Ephemeral Altar Assemblages

This contribution evaluates the installation of (inter)active altar assemblages in museums from the underexamined perspective of collections care practice. Based on ethnographic research at the Fowler Museum at UCLA – which has been exhibiting altars for over two decades – this article investigates the details of constructing, maintaining, documenting and conserving altars. Firstly, it examines the Fowler’s innovative use of registration categories to contend with the fluid identities, status, and functions of individual altar components referred to as “TRs”, “Props”, and “Offerings”. Secondly, it offers a comparative analysis of curatorial and conservation documentation for three entire altars – one of which was also a contemporary artwork – in the 2008 exhibition Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas. This study reveals challenges of exhibiting ephemeral altar assemblages, provides examples of museological innovation to meet those challenges, and highlights the vulnerabilities of such innovations that museums should consider moving forward.