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Savannah African Art Museum

A 10-week curatorial internship for a non-profit museum during the summer of 2023.

About

Responsibilities

  • Docent Training and Research

    • Participate in the Docent training program to become familiar with the collection, themes, and museum galleries.

    • Develop a knowledge of the objects in the collection to use for guest tours and the exhibition project.

  • Exhibition Research and Design

    • Researching specific objects within the collection

    • Creating object label information and didactic wall text

    • Developing a theme for an exhibition

    • Organizing and creating an exhibition proposal

Deliverables

  • ​​Clear Exhibition Theme

  • Curatorial statement

  • Images and list of objects selected for exhibition

  • Didactic wall copy/text

  • Object label copy/text

  • Layout of objects in exhibition space

  • Bibliography of source material

  • Figures with copyright information

  • Color Scheme for promotional material

  • One object highlighted to be used on promotional material

  • Fonts for promotional material

Skills Used/Developed

  • Professionalism

  • Teamwork

  • Research skillsets

  • Analytical skillsets

  • Citation formatting

  • Communication skill

  • Organization of information

  • Exhibition design and installation

  • Graphic design skillsets

  • Interior design basics

Change is Tradition: Keeping Stories Alive

As all things change, so too do stories. Join us as we explore and interact with the extraordinary traditions that keep these stories alive and how they have evolved in an ever spinning world.

Curatorial Statment

This exhibition aims to highlight the importance of stories within African cultures and the different ways they are embedded into their lives. Throughout the Savannah African Art Musuem, there are many similarities but the one idea that is consistently seen is the depth of story within each object. Many objects have a practical use in the sense that they are used daily and within these objects a story is conveyed as a reminder of ancestors, creation, morals, etc. Other objects are used in festivals, rituals, and different types of celebrations and while the story in these objects is not always apparent, it is detailed throughout all of them. History is incredibly important and knowing your history can shape who you are. Princess Yennenga was chosen as the promotional piece due to her story's impact on Burkina Faso and her inherit representation of stories. Her story promotes the past, the present, and the future, showing how continuity is incredibly important and just how much stories develop and persevere throughout time. African history is not pushed away, but embraced in all of these objects. This theme of story was chosen for this exhibition in order to remind that our stories and the way we tell them shape ourselves and our cultures. African cultures not only live in their history and stories every day, but actively participates in them. A story does not involve just one person speaking to the audience, but everyone dancing and singing with the storyteller.

Chapters

1 / The Importance of Stories

2 / Oral Tradition

3 / Puppetry Theatre Traditions

4 / Celebrations and Performance Traditions

Didactic Wall Copy

Sample of Chosen Objects

*A total of 63 objects were chosen for this exhibit.

Sample of Object Label Copies

*A total of 63 objects were chosen for this exhibit.

Color Scheme and Fonts

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Title Font

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Panel Paragraphs

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Object Labels

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Object Layout

*1 box = 1 inch (everything is to scale except the question flaps

Interactives

Copy for Question Flaps

  • Wall 1 Question Flaps: Questions and Answers Samples/Ideas

    • What myth do you think this scarf is portraying?​

      • It is portraying the mythological ancestry of the Solomonic kings​

    • When was this story created?​

      • In the fourteenth century.​

    • What do you think the purpose of this story is?​

      • The purpose of this story is to justify the rule of the Solomonic kings​

    • Why do you think this story is important?​

      • The imperial past of Ethiopia is very important to the country's history and heritage.

  • ​Wall 2 Question Flaps: Questions and Answers Samples/Ideas​

    • What is a storyteller called in Africa?​

      • A griot for men and a griotte for women​

    • African stories are divided into three parts. Do you know what they are?​

      • The introduction, the body section and the conclusion​

    • What happens at the end of most stories?​

      • A moral statement that was hinted at in the intro and body

    • What three elements do these stories explain?​

      • Why we tell stories?​

      • What makes a story worth telling?​

      • How they are told.

    • What happens in the intro of the story?​

      • Griots get engagement out of the audience and then introduce the characters while showing the conflict through different techniques and gestures. ​

Puppet Theatre

QR codes

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Comic Page Example

  • A physical piece of paper that allows guests to create their own stories!

Bibliography

  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

©2021 by Telfair Epperson. Proudly created with Wix.com

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