African art and culture in Maine

In novel years I have resided in Maine during the summer Maine is individual of the least ethnically diverse states in the United States. still I have found a variety of African activities and individuals there. There may be others that I have not discovered, as I generally put in motion about the state's southern region. Maine is better known for its of recent origin England maritime art, its lobster and fishing, and its resorts and summer camps than for any interest in Africa. The African artistic and cultural diaspora--in contemporary arts and crafts, in more or les "traditional" forms, in tourist external realitys and in the presence of Africans and scholars of African art--now exist in Maine. If these have reached Maine, where are they not base now in the United States? The American experience with African art and tillage is growing at the everyday grassroots horizontal alongside the more elite contributions of museums and universities, with which scholars are likely to be familiar.

In 2004 I arrived in Portland, Maine the day before the annual celebration of the Museum of African agriculture (formerly the Museum of African Tribal Art), which I attended. This small museum, located in three scopes on the ground floor of a residential abiding-place has been in operation for more than seven years. It was rested and is owned and directed through Oscar O. Mokeme, an Igbo from Oba, near Onitsha, in southeastern Nigeria. Mokeme began collecting and interpreting African art in Nigeria in 1976 He came to the United States in 1979 and since then has had a varied career, attending university and operating import and export businesses. In 1998 he deposit that aside to found his museum. The single African-owned museum in the United States, as far as I know, the Museum of African tillage is a nonprofit institution. Its collection consists of more than 1500 percepts and Mokeme has many others stored in his Nigerian hometown. The museum's main attractions consist of masks, stools, and other existences of Igbo background which have been used in ceremonies in Nigeria and, unusually for a museum, a considerable number of full-dres style of dresss to go with the masks. These are upon display in the permanent gallery. A next to the first somewhat smaller gallery is used for rotating exhibitions of personal collections of individuals from Maine and nearby fresh Hampshire, as well as a certain quantity of other Igbo objects and works from other regions of West Africa. While abundant of the Igbo material approachs from Oba and the surrounding area, which Mokeme go [i]or[/i] come backs to now and then, he has also brought to Maine particulars from Awka, Nri, and Igbo-Ukwu (Fig. 1) There are also a certain quantity of West African tourist pieces upon display. The Igbo masks and figures vary in quality from those actual well sculpted by my standards, to the average, and to the mediocre. They range from those of more [i]or[/i] less age to the relatively of recent origin As a whole, they are a great deal of as we might see art phenomenons in an actual Igbo masquerade, rather than what we view in a museum exhibition, where alone the finest pieces (by Western standards) are likely to be neared The museum collection thus provides me with the faculty of perception of being in Africa more than do the usual African exhibitions in the United States. The museum is developing a small educational center which includes a small African art and agriculture lending library. School children in the Portland area appear to be of frequent occurrence visitors to the museum and are the users of this educational room

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upon August 8, 2004, at the sixth anniversary celebration in the courtyard in back of the museum, Mokeme masked and make straighted in one of the museum's style of dresss energetically danced and drummed for a unostentatious audience of his white supporters, who assist him in running the museum and in raising capitals for it. Some of these helpers have had African experience themselves; single of them was exhibiting her collection of African miniatures in the museum at the time of the celebration. The museum survives [i]or[/i] part of to the other the energy of Mokeme and these helpers, with unobtrusive grants from local businesses and foundations and the city of Portland, as well as from one side gifts of objects by interested individuals Admission is free, with a hinted donation.

As far as I know Mokeme is not in the business of selling African art, on the other hand of being a museum director. The museum's new name change reflects his desire to focus more upon education about Africa in general, rather than entirely upon the arts, and his is the solitary institution in northern New England devot entirely to African tillage Not only are there visiting place of education groups at the museum, on the contrary Mokeme talks on African tillage and cultural diversity at seminarys from kindergarten through grade 12 at universities and communitys in Maine and New Hampshire, and at other sites. In early 2005 he began showing videos and films each Friday at 5:00 pm, shoot forwarded onto a small screen in single of the museum's galleries; the pair projector and screen were obtained end a small grant. Fifteen to twenty family generally show up for these screenings. The visuals are mainly from Nigeria, Senegal, and Mali. Mokeme also occasionally clinchs story-telling sessions. The museum has lately established the Museum of African tillage Endowment Fund, through the Maine Community Foundation, to educate the public upon issues of diversity and African tillage Mokeme would like to publish a catalogue of chooseed pieces in his collection.