A rise in social justice movements around the world over the last fifteen years has led to new questions about museum collections of African art in the Global North. Provenance, or the history of ownership, lies at the heart of ethical concerns that surround African objects in museums today. Who are the artists that made them? How did they get here? And how do the material qualities of the objects, such as markings from the artist’s hand and signs of wear from use, address these questions? This exhibition explores these timely questions through three thematic areas related to artistic agency, ethics and provenance, and materiality. It considers the interventions that people have made to objects over time and the implications of such departures from the objects’ initial making.
This exhibition grew out of a partnership between the Eskenazi Museum of Art and the Stanley Museum of Art at the University of Iowa. Curators of African art Allison Martino (Eskenazi Museum of Art) and Cory Gundlach (Stanley Museum of Art) co-taught the course “Curating African Art in America” during the spring 2024 semester with students at both Indiana University and University of Iowa that contributed to this exhibition through a synchronous learning hybrid platform. Alternate Paths also reflects this collaboration through displaying together African artworks from the Stanley Museum of Art and Eskenazi Museum of Art’s collections.
Alternate Paths was previously on view at the Stanley Museum of Art from August 2, 2024–February 23, 2025 before opening at the Eskenazi Museum of Art in March 2025. More information about the exhibition at the Stanley Museum of Art is available at the museum's website.
