Blog Post 5/6

Title: African Manifest
Artist: Unknown
Date: Early 21st Century
Geography/Culture: USA, New York/African
Medium: Wood, Metal, Clothing material
Demension: Unknown

In my home there are many objects of importance to me and the rest of my family. This closet especially holds a lot of value in many ways. It holds our African clothing, though the majority of it is my mother’s. the rest are my sister, dad, and myself. When go into this closet when we go out to African events, and sometimes when we go to church. I don’t really go into the closet all that much because I don’t have as much African clothes as I used to when I was a kid. They are very expensive to make. But when I thought about the assignment many things came to mind, the closet stuck out to me because it makes me feel closer to my family and apart of Gambian culture. I may be an American but my other roots are also important, my family back in Africa don’t want my sister and I to forget those roots. Our roots are what make us different from other people around us, it allows us to bring something different to the table. What we share becomes new knowledge to someone who doesn’t understand. This closet in my home has different clothes that people wont see being sold in an H&M store. There are other cultures in the world with different clothing as well that wont be seen in other big name stores. Dana writes “surely a function of a public art museum is the making of life more interesting joyful and wholesome; and surely a museum cannot very well exercised that function unless it relates itself quite closely to the life it should be influencing” a museum is supposed to feature history and art but it should also be able to feature art that is being made in the present. American Museum should also feature art that shows people and its visitors that it is a melting pot and not a country that focus mainly on European art.