ANNOUNCEMENT| Contact: Priyanka Sinha Office: 404-727-4291 | Cell: 404-822-5019 | priyanka.sinha@emory.edu

CULTURAL ASTRONOMY AND CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART

INTERSECT IN “AFRICAN COSMOS: STELLAR ARTS” AT THE CARLOS MUSEUM ATLANTA, GA (October 8, 2014) – The Carlos Museum will host a major exhibition from the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian entitled “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts” from January 31 through June 21, 2015. This is the first major exhibition exploring the historical legacy of African cultural astronomy and its intersection with traditional and contemporary African Arts. The exhibition of some 100 objects considers how the sun, moon, and stars and celestial phenomena such as thunder and rainbows serve as sources of inspiration in the creation of African arts from ancient times to the present. Far from abstract concepts, African notions of the universe are intensely personal and place human beings in relationships with earth and sky and with all celestial bodies. Exhibition narratives will showcase Africa’s contributions to the science and practice of astronomy. African interest in and observation of the cosmos go back as far as the stone circle and megaliths of Nabta Playa, a site in southern Egypt dating to the 5th millennium B.C., which has been interpreted as one of the world’s earliest archeoastronomical devices making star alignments and the summer solstice. Selected ancient Egyptian and Nubian works of art will examine solar and stellar themes, demonstrating Africa’s early engagement with celestial observations and its foundational place in visual arts and religion. Other pieces range from 19th- and 20th-century masks, figures, and ritual objects made by artists from regions south of the Sahara, to works by internationally recognized contemporary artists who draw on the cosmos for inspiration, including El Anatsui, the late Alexander “Skunder” Boghossian, Gavin Jantjes, William Kentridge, Karel Nel, and Marcus Neustetter. Exhibition highlights include:

• An ancient Egyptian mummy board ornamented with a representation of Nut, the sky goddess • Dogon (Mali) sculptures and masks that relate to origin myths connecting earth and sky • Yoruba (Nigeria) sculptures honoring Shango, the thunder deity • Tabwa and Luba (Democratic Republic of the Congo) sculptures connected to ideas about the moon, enlightenment,

and special insight • A time-based video “Deep Survey” by South African artist Karel Nel that uses data from the COSMOS survey project

to suggest the sights and sounds of moving deep into space. Press images and captions: View/Download Major sponsorship for “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts” is provided by the government of the Republic of South Africa and South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology. Additional support is from BET Networks, Stuart Bohart and family, Brand South Africa, Credit Suisse, South African Airways, South African Airways Cargo and the Embassy of South Africa in Washington, D.C. This exhibition is in conjunction with Emory’s “Creation Stories Project,” which explores the timeless questions of origin, creation, and intent that have served as a catalyst for human thought and creativity. “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts” and associated educational programs have been made possible by generous grants from the Thalia N. and Chris M. Carlos Foundation, Inc.; the Thalia and Michael C. Carlos Foundation, Inc.; the Massey Charitable Trust; and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. About the Michael C. Carlos Museum The Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets art and artifacts from antiquity to the present in order to provide unique opportunities for education and enrichment in the community, and to promote interdisciplinary teaching and research at Emory University. The Carlos Museum is one of the Southeast's premier museums with collections of art from Greece, Rome, Egypt, Near East, Nubia, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, as well as a collection of works on paper from the Renaissance to the present. For location and admission information, visit carlos.emory.edu/visit/hours-admission. www.carlos.emory.edu ###

ANNOUNCEMENT| Contact: Priyanka Sinha Office: 404-727-4291 | Cell: 404-822-5019 | priyanka.sinha@emory.edu

MELINDA HARTWIG JOINS THE CARLOS MUSEUM AS CURATOR OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN, NUBIAN, AND NEAR EASTERN ART

ATLANTA, GA (December 3, 2014) – The Michael C. Carlos Museum is pleased to welcome Dr. Melinda Hartwig as the new curator of ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern art. Hartwig has been an active Egyptologist curating exhibitions, leading archaeological excavations, teaching, and generating invaluable scholarship. She brings extensive experience to the museum’s continued mission to promote the study, preservation, and exhibition of ancient art. Hartwig is a specialist in ancient Egyptian sculpture and painting, ancient Near Eastern interconnections, and the applications of science in art. She has worked for over thirty years in Egypt leading conservation and documentation projects, most recently in the Theban tombs of Menna and Neferrenpet, using the latest non-invasive scientific tools of analysis.

Since 2001, Hartwig has taught at Georgia State University in the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design, as professor of ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern art and archaeology. She has curated exhibitions featured at the University of Memphis Art Museum and the High Museum. She has also received awards, grants, and honors to further her work in Egypt, including those from the United States Agency for International Development; National Endowment for the Humanities American Overseas Center for Advanced Study Fellowship; and United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Fellowship. Hartwig’s lifelong commitment to and knowledge of ancient Egyptian art is recognized internationally with widely published books and articles. Major broadcast outlets, including the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, BBC, and PBS, leverage her expertise. Hartwig will oversee exhibitions, strategic partnerships, and continued stewardship of the museum’s ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern collections. About the Michael C. Carlos Museum The Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets art and artifacts from antiquity to the present in order to provide unique opportunities for education and enrichment in the community, and to promote interdisciplinary teaching and research at Emory University. The Carlos Museum is one of the Southeast's premier museums with collections of art from Greece, Rome, Egypt, Near East, Nubia, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, as well as a collection of works on paper from the Renaissance to the present. For location and admission information, visit carlos.emory.edu/visit/hours-admission. www.carlos.emory.edu ###

IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Contact: Priyanka Sinha Office: 404-727-4291 | Cell: 404-822-5019 | priyanka.sinha@emory.edu

“INDIGENOUS BEAUTY: MASTERWORKS OF AMERICAN INDIAN ART FROM THE DIKER COLLECTION” PREMIERING IN THE SOUTHEAST AT THE CARLOS MUSEUM

October 10, 2015 through January 3, 2016 ATLANTA, GA (May 12, 2015)–Drawn from the celebrated Native American art collection of Charles and Valerie Diker, “Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection” is organized by the American Federation of Arts (AFA) and features 122 masterworks representing First Nations peoples across the North American continent. “Indigenous Beauty” emphasizes three interrelated themes—diversity, beauty, and knowledge—that relate both to the artworks’ original Native contexts and to the ways in which the objects might be experienced by visitors in a contemporary museum setting. The exhibition is organized into ten clusters with the objects in each cluster demonstrating common, formal and functional qualities. The groupings are based primarily on geographic and cultural factors, allowing the viewer to perceive the impact of historical events as well as stylistic shifts over the course of decades or centuries. The range of work represented includes ancient ivories from the Bering Strait region; Yup’ik and Aleut masks from the Western Arctic; Southwest pottery; sculptural objects from the Eastern Woodlands; decorative clothing from Eastern and Plains First Nations peoples; pictographic arts of the Plains; sculpture and weaving of the Northwest Coast; and Western baskets. The diversity of Native artistry shines through in the wide range of styles exhibited by hundreds of unique groups whose languages, mythologies, and customs have evolved over the centuries. Artists are identified as members of a great variety of First Nations each a product of deep and intertwined native histories. These rich backgrounds inform the objects; some are rooted in particular episodes in the ancient past, while others stem from historic challenges and experiences. Together, these captivating objects and their individual stories convey the extraordinary breadth of Native American experience in North America. “We are extremely excited to mount our first major show of Native North American art here at the Carlos,” says museum curator Rebecca Bailey Stone. “An initiative was launched in 2012 to organize small shows in one gallery from this area, but this exhibition will impress everyone with its sheer breadth, diversity, and beauty." Visitors to the exhibition will learn how cultural knowledge is imbedded in a work of art, being passed down and refined over the generations as artists learn from their elders’ techniques. Over the last few decades, increased scholarship and closer collaborations between museums and Native communities have resulted in the recovery of knowledge about how objects were made, provenance details, and the ways in which the objects may have been used and understood. “Indigenous Beauty” media kit: View/Download “Indigenous Beauty” in Atlanta was made possible by the Thalia & Michael C. Carlos Foundation, the Thalia and Chris Carlos Foundation

About the Michael C. Carlos Museum The Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets art and artifacts from antiquity to the present in order to provide unique opportunities for education and enrichment in the community, and to promote interdisciplinary teaching and research at Emory University. The Carlos Museum is one of the Southeast's premier museums with collections of art from Greece, Rome, Egypt, Near

East, Nubia, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, as well as a collection of works on paper from the Renaissance to the present. For location and admission information, visit carlos.emory.edu/visit/hours-admission. www.carlos.emory.edu

###

ANNOUNCEMENT| Contact: Priyanka Sinha Office: 404-727-4291 | Cell: 404-822-5019 | priyanka.sinha@emory.edu

CREATIVITY ILLUMINATED: MARCUS NEUSTETTER BRINGS LIGHT TO ART

ATLANTA, GA (February 16, 2015)—Johannesburg-based artist Marcus Neustetter, whose work “Chasing Light” opens the exhibition “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts,” will be in residence at the Carlos Museum from Monday, March 16 through Sunday, March 22, 2015. Neustetter, known for designing large-scale public art projects, also creates delicate drawings based on human beings’ connection to nature. His fascination with and study of the illusive qualities of light have led to

technology-based installations, photography, and pen and ink drawings. While on campus, he will give lectures; have a "musical dialogue" with jazz composers and musicians; teach in astronomy, visual arts, and art history classes; and work with Emory students and the public on a number of collaborative art-making activities--provocative, playful, and process-driven--that use light as a medium. Artist-in-Residence Programs: Visit Press images: View/Download

About the Michael C. Carlos Museum The Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets art and artifacts from antiquity to the present in order to provide unique opportunities for education and enrichment in the community, and to promote interdisciplinary teaching and research at Emory University. The Carlos Museum is one of the Southeast's premier museums with collections of art from Greece, Rome, Egypt, Near East, Nubia, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, as well as a collection of works on paper from the Renaissance to the present. For location and admission information, visit carlos.emory.edu/visit/hours-admission. carlos.emory.edu ###

ANNOUNCEMENT| Contact: Priyanka Sinha Office: 404-727-4291 | Cell: 404-822-5019 | priyanka.sinha@emory.edu

“CREATING MATTER: THE PRINTS OF MILDRED THOMPSON” AT THE CARLOS MUSEUM

January 17 through May 17, 2015

ATLANTA, GA (December 17, 2014)–“Creating Matter: The Prints of Mildred Thompson” will explore Mildred Thompson’s interest in creation and the cosmos. Born in 1936, Thompson trained formally in the United States at Howard University and at the Art Institute of Hamburg, Germany, among other notable institutions. When she returned, she was discouraged to find that galleries in New York City were reluctant to feature the work of an African-American artist. One gallery even suggested that Thompson hire a white woman to impersonate her in public. She returned to Germany during the 1960s as a result. In 1986 Thompson settled in Atlanta, where she became editor of Art Papers and taught at several area institutions. The city would be her home for the rest of her life. Thompson’s work is heavily influenced by African textiles, American jazz, European classical music, and German Expressionism. Most of her early work was figural, but she moved toward total abstraction in the 1970s. The prints in this exhibition are mature works from the 1980s onward. They are full of movement, yet deliberately mysterious, revealing Thompson’s interest in quarks, string theory, astronomy, and the Jungian “collective unconscious.” Thompson died in 2003, leaving behind a massive and important body of work that remains relatively unexplored in the United States.

Press images, captions, and article: View/Download Mildred Thompson: Photo © the artist. Please contact mccm.collections.services@emory.edu for terms of use. “Creating Matter” is being held in conjunction with Emory University’s “Creation Stories Project,” which explores the timeless questions of origin, creation, and intent that have served as a catalyst for human thought and creativity. The educational programs have been made possible by generous

grants from the Thalia N. and Chris M. Carlos Foundation, Inc.; the Thalia and Michael C. Carlos Foundation, Inc.; the Massey Charitable Trust; and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. About the Michael C. Carlos Museum The Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets art and artifacts from antiquity to the present in order to provide unique opportunities for education and enrichment in the community, and to promote interdisciplinary teaching and research at Emory University. The Carlos Museum is one of the Southeast's premier museums with collections of art from Greece, Rome, Egypt, Near East, Nubia, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, as well as a collection of works on paper from the Renaissance to the present. For location and admission information, visit carlos.emory.edu/visit/hours-admission. www.carlos.emory.edu ###