Over the past two years through a most creative leadership, William Butler, Curator of Collections, has brought forth the assemblage of this important collection as a long-term interpretive exhibition. After thoroughly evaluating the Museum's African collection in 1992 and 1993, Bill authored a successful grant proposal to the National Endowment for the Arts whose collaboration and financial support have been essential to the success of this exhibition. With characteristic professionalism and good judgment, Bill has overseen all aspects of the exhibition.
Cory Tibbits, Curator of Exhibitions, has met the challenges of budget and time to install the Meyer Collection with maximum aesthetic power and educational effectiveness. His sense of humor and long experience once again made the execution of a difficult and complex job appear effortless. Developing interpretive programs for our exhibitions is a vital task, one which Curator of Education Barbara Melcher manages admirably. Not only has Barbara designed a stimulating series of lectures and events and a teacher's guide for this exhibition, but her grantwriting skill secured generous support for these programs from the Illinois Humanities Council and the Peoria Area Community Foundation.
Cutting to the Essence - Shaping for the Fire is substantially the work of two talented Africanists, Michael Conner and Martha Ehrlich. Dr. Martha Ehrlich, a recognized authority on Akan gold, lent her expertise and enthusiasm to the goldweight portion of this exhibition. Her thorough cataloguing of the Meyer Collection goldweights and her essay on that topic bring to life an intriguing subject. Dr. Conner assisted Lakeview Museum in the evaluation of its African collection, in the course of which he planted the seed for this exhibition. He was also the author and producer of a multimedia interactive kiosk that introduces gallery visitors to the Yoruba and Akan cultures. Invaluable to the production of that database has been Daniel FitzSimmons, who provided skillful technical and creative assistance.
Steven Meckstroth, Special Collections and Fine Arts Librarian, Illinois State University, continued his cooperation with Lakeview Museum's African exhibitions by lending two works from the University's African Collection. Performing the examination and conservation of several objects in the exhibition were Laura Reuter, Assistant Conservator of Ethnographic Objects, Indianapolis Museum of Art, and independent conservator, Tessa Ramseyer - who generously donated her services. Appreciation is also due Marc Esser for his photography of the Meyer Collection. Thanks, too, are due Dr. Ehrlich's husband, Geoffrey Gordon, for his behind-the-scenes help.
For their helpful counsel and interest, thanks go to William Dewey, assistant professor of art history, University of Iowa; Theodore Celenko, Curator of African, South Pacific, and Precolumbian Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art; and Roy Sieber, Rudy Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, and Associate Director, National Museum of African Art. Roslyn Walker, Curator, National Museum of African Art, also deserves our appreciation for her earlier work with the Meyer Collection that culminated in the 1981 Lakeview Museum exhibition, African Art in Cultural Context.
With the appearance of Netscape and other interactive Internet browsers, the WorldWideWeb as become an important vehicle for the electronic publishing of museum catalogs. Lakeview follows the lead of the University of Virginia's Bayly Museum in offering one of the very first Indiana University's School of Continuing Studies, and the helpful staff at Indiana University's Teaching and Learning Technologies Lab. In translating and adapting the catalog to Internet access, Michael Conner and Pamela Welsh-Huggins were able to draw upon the expertise of David Goodrum, Director of Instructional Support Services, and Technologies Lab consultants Patrick Heilman, Frank Morris, and Jiangmei Wu. Thanks also to David Gulbransen, Webmaster for the Indiana University Fine Arts Consortium, who cultivates and maintains the Fine Arts server upon which this file resides.
Lastly, we must recognize the valued efforts of the rest of the staff of Lakeview Museum, its scores of volunteers and the Board of Trustees, without whose support, enthusiasm, and dedication this effort would not have been brought to fruition.
Michael Sanden
Executive Director
