National Endowment for Humanities grants $350,000 to Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University

The exhibition which is a first major art exhibition to represent the global reach of West Africa will begin on Janaury 26, 2019 till July 21, 2019.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has granted $350,000 to the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University for a major exhibition implementation.

Through the grant, the exhibition titled as "Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa", will be supported. The exhibition will open in Janaury 2019 at Block Museum. and will then travel to the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto and after that to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.

The grant offered is one of the 10 museum implementation grants that NEH offers during its funding round.

The grants are given to those who help in the public understanding of ideas and topics pertaining to humanities.

The exhibition which is a first major art exhibition to represent the global reach of West Africa will begin on Janaury 26, 2019 till July 21, 2019.

During the exhibition, the time when Sub Sharan trade routes were used as a platform for exchanging art, people and ideas will be reflected. The exhibition is a means of binding West Africa to North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

More than 250 artworks will be showcased during the month-long exhibition. Kathleen BickfordBerzock, the associate director of curatorial affairs at the Block Museum is the curator of "Caravans of Gold". She has been supported by an interdisciplinary team of art history, archaeology, history and comparative literature specialists working in sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, and Europe.

Lisa Graziose Corrin, Block Museum of Art Ellen Philips Katz Director, said: "The National Endowment for the Humanities is one of the highest platforms for the advancement of groundbreaking scholarship and cultural work."

She further added:"We are deeply grateful to the NEH for their support in presenting this ambitious, interdisciplinary exhibition that places Africa at the center of a global historical narrative and invites American audiences to rethink Africa’s presence in world history. This grant underscores the importance of this story to audiences on a national level."