Cloth is Money: Textiles from the Sahel

After a hiatus from museums during the pandemic, I was grateful for the opportunity to return to the galleries with a visit to the Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM) for the exhibition Cloth is Money: Textiles from the Sahel. Entering the museum's atrium, I was greeted by an expansive Fulani arkilla jenngo spread across the wall of a nearby alcove (Fig. 1). With its dynamic checkered design and bold contrasting colors, the striking ceremonial tent hanging offered a tantalizing hint to the lush array of textiles to come later in the main gallery space. Drawn entirely from the museum's extensive holdings of African art, Cloth is Money featured ten works of twentieth and twenty-first century textiles from the Sahel, a region that comprises the geographic transition zone between North and sub-Saharan Africa. Placed within a hallway gallery connecting the building's two wings, the exhibition was curated by Jean...