Collecting Cultures

The exhibition Collecting Cultures explores issues of collecting and representation and illustrates the complexities of art making and collecting during the colonial period and it’s aftermath in the twentieth century. This project focuses primarily on Denison’s Burmese collection (Burma is currently known as Myanmar) which includes textiles, religious images, and objects created by and for the colonial and missionary audience. Similar issues of collection and representation are shown with several objects of Cuna Indian origin. The challenge of this project lies in its presentation in a re-examined context. The objects have been grouped, or installed, in four different sections designed to focus on: “moment of contact,” “cultural loss/cultural exchange,” “tourist art,” and “lives of missionaries and collectors.” Last spring, Denison Assistant Professor Kimberly Masteller and her students in Art 157 (Eastern Survey) researched the significance of these objects within their original cultures, and noted their changed or evolved meanings as objects collected by missionaries. Today, with the exhibition and the web catalogue, both strategies are presented. 

Beyond my personal appreciation for the work included in Collecting Cultures, I am interested in the teaching goals embodied in these efforts. Through the use of a web catalogue, Masteller sought to create a very professional and effective presentation of the exhibition. The web catalogue is an eloquent artist’s statement, which not only documents many facets of this university-sponsored endeavor, but also effectively illustrates the process of making an exhibition. 

Denison University Art Gallery would like to acknowledge the generous support from Scott Sidall (Denison Faculty Incentive Fund), Clarke Stallworth, Richard Millan, Tejas Mehta, Mieko Kurosawa and Masteller’s Art 157 class (DU, Spring 2000), in their assistance in producing this catalogue. I would also like to thank Elizabeth Collins, Director of Ohio University’s Southeast Asian Studies Program, for her support and pledge to show the exhibition in a slightly expanded format from April – November 2001. I am indebted to Eliza Kent, DU Visiting Assistant Professor in Religion, 1999-2000 (Kent currently is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Central Washington University), for her insightful comments and dedication to this project. A thanks goes to the Gallery Committee for their cooperation and contributions to this endeavor and my Gallery Assistants Laura Evans, Carrie McCabe and Tanya Sheremeta for their help and patience in putting together the exhibition. Thanks also to Susan Diduk and Pamela Scully for their advice and interest in this project. Ultimately the success of this exhibition is the result of the intelligence, discernment and energies of Kimberly Masteller (Assistant Professor of Art, Denison University 1998-2000, recipient of a Fulbright grant and currently conducting research in India). I would like to express my deepest appreciation for her dedicated effort in its behalf and for bringing yet another great potential of Denison’s collection to my attention. And finally special thanks to the many donors who contributed to the collection; without their generosity and insight, the exhibition wouldn’t have been possible. We look forward to sharing Collecting Cultures in this meaningful way. 

Merijn van der Heijden, Gallery Director