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- Category: Campus News
The collections of Mrs. Corine Thompson in memory of her late husband, Eugene Thompson, as well as those of Dave and Karina Rilling will be celebrated with the first installation of works during the opening of the Danjuma African Art Center at The Lincoln University on Saturday, April 12th at 12:30 p.m.
The public is invited to attend.
A temporary installation of lithographs, collographs, relief prints will include artists representing Nigeria, Cuba, Senegal, and South Africa.
General Theophilus Y. Danjuma, a Nigerian Jukun soldier, politician, businessman and retired Chief of Army Staff and Minister of Defense under Olusegun Obasanjo, is the benefactor of the African Art Center at The Lincoln University. Currently chairman ofSouth Atlantic Petroleum (SAPETRO) of Nigeria, General Danjuma will attend the opening dedication and reception as the University’s honored guest. The Center is named for Danjuma for his outstanding support of the development of the Center and his ongoing commitment to its success.
The Danjuma African Art Center
Founded in 1854, The Lincoln University has been consistent in its outreach to diverse communities and people of African descent. African students have always been a strong presence on campus and a vital part of the university’s ability to integrate international perspectives in its teaching. The University has been extremely fortunate to receive donations of African art and artifacts from its students, faculty, visiting scholars and dignitaries. This material culture− sculptures, masks, vases, totems, pottery, and jewelry− evidence the spiritual and cultural practices of countries such as Nigeria, Congo (DRC), Ghana, Cameroon, Liberia, Ethiopia and Angola.
The collection is constantly growing and has become a significant resource for academic inquiry and a means to affirm the rich heritage that connects The Lincoln University community to its history of engagement with students of African descent.
The new Danjuma African Art Center represents a new stage in the development and accessibility of The Lincoln University’s African Collection and programming, which will bring increased cultural awareness and enrichment to our academic programs and student life on campus. Through the Danjuma African Art Center, the University will not only unveil its collections through permanent and changing installations, it will present a new series of programs to educate and entertain around African art and culture, and its growing influence in the global society.
Programs
For more than 90 years, a number of individuals have made significant contributions to the growth of the University’s African Art Collections. The galleries at the Danjuma African Art Center will highlight the gifts of Robert Freeman, Jr. ‘41, Franklin H. Williams ‘41, Rev. Irvin W. Underhill, Jr. D.D., F.R.G.S. in memory of his wife, the late Susan Reynolds Underhill, Mrs. Corine Thompson in memory of her late husband, Eugene Thompson and Dave and Karina Rilling, among others.
Additional galleries and space will be dedicated to rotating installations of the contemporary art collection, including those donated by alumni and prints from the Brandywine Workshop. A classroom and student art display space is also planned.
In addition, the Center will periodically schedule special loan installations of related art and artifacts as well as art by contemporary African artists to help visitors reflect on current trends in the era of Post Modern art. The African Diaspora artists living in the Americas, Europe and other areas will also be presented when the artworks express ideas or practices that illuminate their journey and represent universal concepts of humanity – its struggles, beliefs, motivations and successes. The more complex and divergent narratives that will be presented through art and culture will invite our local and extended communities around Lincoln to visit and explore us.
EDITOR’S NOTE: ‘THE LINCOLN UNIVERSITY’ IS NOW THE OFFICIAL NAME FOR THE INSTITUTION FORMERLY REFERRED TO AS ‘LINCOLN UNIVERSITY’ OR ‘LINCOLN UNIVERSITY OF PA’ AND SHOULD BE ADHERED TO IN ALL REFERENCES.
Founded in 1854, The Lincoln University (PA) is the FIRST of four Lincoln Universities in the world and is the nation’s FIRST degree-granting Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The University combines the elements of a liberal arts and science-based undergraduate curriculum along with select graduate programs to meet the needs of those living in a highly-technological and global society. Today, Lincoln, which enrolls a diverse student body of approximately 2,000 men and women, possesses an international reputation for preparing and producing world class leaders such as Thurgood Marshall, the FIRST African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Lillian Fishburne, the FIRST African American woman promoted to Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy, Langston Hughes, the noted poet, Kwame Nkrumah, the FIRST President of Ghana, Nnamdi Azikiwe, the FIRST President of Nigeria and a myriad of others.