Impermanent by Design: The Ephemeral in Africa's Tradition-based Arts

Acting Deputy Director/Chief Curator at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, where she has worked since 2000. Her exhibitions and publications explore art and ritual, gender, African systems of knowledge, and museum practice, and they bridge the disciplines of art history, anthropology, and museum studies. In addition to research in Togo, she has worked on museum exhibition and training projects in Ghana and Vietnam. She received her doctoral degree from Indiana University. Her recent co-authored publications include African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection (2007) and Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art (2007). She has a forthcoming exhibition and book project on African arts and the cosmos. kreamerc@si.edu