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African Arts Initiative

Nelson Makamo and Mandisi Dyantyis' Artist-in-Residency Conversation and Concert

April 28, 2022

On April 28, 2022, the Harvard community was treated to a unique opportunity to hear from acclaimed international artist Nelson Makamo and jazz musician and composer Mandisi Dyantyis for a conversation about how art informs art and reflections on their experiences as artists-in-residence at the Harvard Center for African Studies as the two-week residency came to an end.

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The Center for African Studies Launches the Artist-in-Residence Program

April 11, 2022

As part of the Harvard Center for African Studies' African Arts Initiative, Leverett House has partnered with the Center for African Studies to bring the inaugural cohort of the Artist-in-Residence Program. For the two next weeks, visual artist Nelson Makamo and musician Mandisi Dyantyis, both from South Africa, will offer interactive workshops together at Leverett House that will culminate in an exhibition of student art and a concert with student musicians. Coming from apartheid and...

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2022 Mar 31

Artist Talk: Young Joo Lee and Akosua Adoma Owusu

7:00pm to 8:30pm

Location: 

Virtual

Register Here

The Carpenter Center is  fortunate to have an impressive and wide-ranging group of artists working across photography, participatory and performance-based practices, painting and drawing, and video teaching in the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies (AFVS). Join them at 7:00 pm EST for two presentations by artists and...

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2019 Mar 06

Art and Religious Devotion in Morocco: Notes on a Calligraphic Panel from the Harvard Art Museums

6:00pm to 7:15pm

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street Cambridge MA

A large-scale calligraphic panel from Morocco features stylized views of Mecca and Medina and representation of the Prophet Muhammad’s sandals, alongside prayers praising the Prophet and a selection of verses from the Qur’an.

This striking work raises the broad question of representational imagery in an Islamic devotional context as well as the more specific matter of artistic transfer from illustrated copies of the Dala’il al-Khayrat (The Ways of Edification). This famous collection of prayers blessing the Prophet, compiled by the 15th-century Sufi mystic...

Read more about Art and Religious Devotion in Morocco: Notes on a Calligraphic Panel from the Harvard Art Museums
2019 Mar 06

Art and Religious Devotion in Morocco: Notes on a Calligraphic Panel from the Harvard Art Museums

6:00pm to 7:15pm

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street Cambridge MA

A large-scale calligraphic panel from Morocco features stylized views of Mecca and Medina and representation of the Prophet Muhammad’s sandals, alongside prayers praising the Prophet and a selection of verses from the Qur’an.

This striking work raises the broad question of representational imagery in an Islamic devotional context as well as the more specific matter of artistic transfer from illustrated copies of the Dala’il al-Khayrat (The Ways of Edification). This famous collection of prayers blessing the Prophet, compiled by the 15th-century Sufi mystic...

Read more about Art and Religious Devotion in Morocco: Notes on a Calligraphic Panel from the Harvard Art Museums
2019 Mar 08

Art Study Center Seminar: Painted Piety—The Art of Religious Devotion in Morocco

11:00am to 12:00pm

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street Cambridge MA

In this seminar, Mounia Chekhab Aboudaya, curator for North Africa and Iberia at the Museum of Islamic Art, in Doha, Qatar, and Rachel Parikh, the Calderwood Curatorial Fellow in South Asian Art at the Harvard Art Museums, will explore the religious and artistic context behind a large, calligraphic panel venerating the Prophet Muhammad.

This recent acquisition, created in 20th-century Morocco, is as enigmatic as it is striking—there is no known devotional panel like it. However, drawing from other objects, such as pilgrimage guides and prayer books, within Harvard Art Museums...

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2016 Feb 17

Arts Education for Social Transformation in Africa

6:00pm to 7:00pm

Location: 

Gutman Conference Center A1
The African Education Initiative will host a panel on Arts Education for Social Transformation in Africa. Panelists will draw from their experiences in Cameroon, Tanzania, and Ghana to discuss the role and the impact of arts education in Africa. Together they will examine how the arts in education can be a tool to spark social transformation on the continent.Panelists include:
  • Kosi Yankey, Harvard Kennedy School
  • Danielle Williams, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  • Divine Gordan Asaah, Harvard Divinity School
  • Flossy Azu,...
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