Collecting “Africa” at the Hood Museum of Art,Dartmouth College

Abstract

The Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, one of the oldest and largest college museums in the country, is comprised of more than 65,000 objects from around the world made in a wide range of types, styles, origins, and media, with some regional collections being almost encyclopedic. In more recent years, the Hood has begun to expand its collecting interests to include not just ancient and historical works created in “traditional” African cultural contexts, but also works by contemporary artists living in and away from Africa. This new direction poses significant challenges to the larger conceptual and practical framework not only of the Hood Museum of Art, but also broader museum practices in general. This essay will focus on the Hood's activities over the past five years in questioning its own collection and exhibition practices. Providing individual case studies of experimental strategies and practices recently used at the Hood, this essay will reveal the slippery slope upon which museums stand today in redefining their ideologies and practices in an ever-diversifying and “globalized” art world.