NSU Hosts Opening of 9th Annual African Presence Exhibition, Exploring Memory, History & Art

(Photo caption: African Presence Organizing Committee (L to R) Gabriela Vignolo, Andra Liwag, Gregory Sidberry, Anne Leon, artist Jerry Kraig, Mara Kiffin, curator Babacar MBow, Lynn Larose, Rochelle Clarke and Ron Ryan.

Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel once said “memory feeds a culture, nourishes hope and makes a human, human.” The international artists who are part of NSU’s 9^th Annual African Presence Art Exhibition can relate to that sentiment.

That’s because the work of these 12 artists explores the connections between cultural memory, history and the creation of art in the exhibition titled Contemporary African Diaspora Memory in Motion. The exhibition consists of more than 60 paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media creations by renowned master artists of African descent.

A Feb. 2 grand opening reception for the exhibit featured refreshments, giveaways, musical entertainment, dance and step performances, as well as the unveiling of the exhibit. Contemporary African Diaspora Memory in Motion is FREE and open to the public now through March 28, 2012 in the Second Floor Gallery of NSU’s Alvin Sherman Library during the following hours:

Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sundays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The exhibit is organized by NSU in collaboration with the Florida Africana Studies Consortium, and demonstrates the importance of visual and related expressive forms of culture to the development and remembrance of kinship.

“Within the global Pan-African world, art production psychically remembers identities through validating and refreshing experiences,” curator Babacar Mbow said. “The pivotal argument here is that through art, histories and traditions are vivified and become vessels of memory. In this psychological framework, memory is not passive and the mind is not simply a repository from which memories can be retrieved.”

Contemporary African Diaspora Memory in Motion is part of the university’s 9th Annual African Presence Art Exhibition and 2012 Black History Month celebration, which includes a month long calendar of compelling discussions, engaging performances, educational workshops and dynamic speakers. Contemporary African Diaspora Memory in Motion is sponsored by NSU’s Office of University Relations.

For more information about NSU’s extensive offering of Black History Month events, please visit www.nova.edu/blackhistory.