Readers of this journal are well-versed in the challenges of presenting African art in a long-term museum exhibition with collections spanning many geographies and periods. We Write to You About Africa at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) addressed these challenges by acknowledging the limitations of museum exhibitions, while still presenting an impressive collection and diverse visual experiences. A short-term exhibition, entitled Wish You Were Here: African Art and Restitution, provided a deep dive into the topics of restitution, repatriation, and provenance. The thematic approaches of both installations engaged with multidisciplinary university audiences to stimulate discussions about racism, violence, and activism.
For the main exhibition, curators Laura De Becker and Ozi Uduma drew inspiration from Dawson Weber's Postcard from Algiers (2021), especially the artist's framing of postcards as portals into other worlds (Fig. 1). The introductory text compared postcards and art collections, which the curators...