DIA Friends of African and African American Art hold Eighth Annual Recognition Award

Program one of several events celebrating auxiliary’s 50th anniversary

DETROIT - On Sunday, Oct. 14 at 2 p.m. the Detroit Institute of Arts’ (DIA) auxiliary Friends of African and African American Art (FAAAA) will present its eighth annual African Art Recognition Award to Rowland Abiodun, John C. Newton Professor of Art and the History of Art, and of Black Studies, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. The DIA established the award to honor the contributions of scholars, artists and collectors who have made significant contributions to the field of African art scholarship. The program is free with museum admission.

Abiodun will present an illustrated talk entitled “Searching for the ‘African’ in ‘African Art Studies.’” Despite the sense of inclusiveness implied by the idea of “globalization,” Western philosophy and Western literary theory are still favored over African thought systems and languages in African art studies. Like “postmodernism” and “deconstructionism,” global studies have generated many theories in which indigenous African perspectives have been glaringly absent. Abiodun will present a critical examination of the premise of some of these prevailing theories, reflecting on their relevance to African art scholarship.


Mpondn Bride's Ensenble Consisting of 51 Pieces (Photo ©2012, Detroit Institute of Arts)

This year’s program is part of a year-long celebration of FAAAA’s 50th anniversary.

Friends of African and African American Art
One of the DIA’s oldest auxiliaries, Friends of African and African American Art (FAAAA) originated as the African Art Gallery Committee in 1962. Its mission was to acquire art for a new gallery dedicated to the traditional art of Africa. By the late 1980s, the auxiliary’s purview expanded to include African American art, and it officially became Friends of African and African American Art in 1992.