Speakers

Min Jung Kim 
Barbara B. Taylor Director 
Saint Louis Art Museum 
 
Nichole Bridges 
Morton D. May Curator of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas 
Saint Louis Art Museum  

[Min]
Hello, I am Min Jung Kim, Barbara B. Taylor Director of the Saint Louis Art Museum.

I am delighted to welcome you to the audio guide for Narrative Wisdom and African Arts. This exhibition is a groundbreaking examination of how visual arts, oral traditions, and memory intersect. Featuring historical arts from across sub-Saharan Africa and contemporary art by artists working in Africa and worldwide, the exhibition demonstrates a wide range of material, political, and philosophical approaches to narrative. To tell you more, I’d like to introduce the exhibition curator, Nichole Bridges, the Museum’s curator of African art and Morton D. May Curator of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

[Nichole]
Thank you, Min.

This exhibition explores African arts that reinforce narratives rooted in collective and individual knowledge. As you move through these galleries, you will consider how arts support oral traditions and memory, helping to make them more tangible. You will encounter a rich array of artistic mediums, including sculptures in wood, clay, metal and ivory, textiles, paintings, drawings, and photographs, and you’ll experience multimedia audio and video works. While you explore, I hope you will consider how these arts—made by historical artists across Africa and by contemporary African artists who work around the globe—support or challenge narratives centered around four primary themes: leadership, memory, destiny, and ancestral wisdoms.

This exhibition guide offers commentaries from several individuals. In addition to my voice, you will hear from other scholars, artists, and cultural experts.  We encourage you to experience this guide in any order you like. You may follow it in numeric order or pick and choose. Each featured object can be located by following the floorplan on this webpage or by identifying the audio icon on the object’s label in the exhibition. Whether you’re listening from home or in the Museum’s galleries, I hope you enjoy this audio guide and your visit to Narrative Wisdom and African Arts.