Henry Drewal
Apprenticeships with Yoruba sculptors in Nigeria transformed his life and led him to an interdisciplinary PhD at Columbia University in African art history and culture. From 1973 to 1990, he taught at Cleveland State University, chaired the Art Department (1982-5), and served as Adjunct Curator of African art at the Cleveland Museum of Art (1987-1990). From 1991 until his retirement in 2019, he was the Evjue-Bascom Professor of Art History and Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His published works include many articles, books, film, and catalogues including: Introspectives: Contemporary Art by Americans and Brazilians of African Descent (with David Driskell); Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought; Beads, Body, and Soul: Art and Light in the Yoruba Universe; Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and its Diasporas; and most recently Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths. As a Senior Fulbright scholar in Morocco in 2017, he studied and worked with blacksmiths and produced a short essay and documentary film entitled BLACKsmiths of Morocco. In early 2020 he was the Paul Mellon Visiting Senior Fellow at CASVA-The National Gallery of Art. He continues to explore the role of the senses and sense-abilities in shaping arts, persons, cultures and histories using his approach called Sensiotics.
EDUCATION
1973 Ph.D., Columbia University, N.Y.
1969 Certificate of African Studies (M.A.), Institute of African Studies, Columbia University
1968 M.A., Columbia University
1964 B.A., Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE (TEACHING)
2019-present Evjue-Bascom Professor Emeritus of Art History and Afro-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
1990-2019 Evjue-Bascom Professor of Art History, Department of Art History, joint appointment with the Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
PUBLICATIONS (BOOKS, CATALOGS, EDITED VOLUMES)
In Progress - Sensiotics: Senses and Understandings of the Arts in Africa, and Elsewhere (multi-sensory book-length mss)
2019 Co-editor and author (with Tom Joyce, Allen F. Roberts, and Marla Berns lead editors), Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths. LA: Fowler Museum of UCLA and University of Washington Press, 510pp.
PUBLICATIONS (ARTICLES)
2020 “Sensiotics: Senses in Understandings of the Arts, Culture, and History of Yorùbá People in Africa and the African Diaspora,” in Center40: National Gallery of Art-Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, pp. 76-79.
2020 “Soulful Stitching, Social Action: Patchwork Quilts by African Indians (Siddis) of Northern Karnataka-India,” Black Ambassadors of Politics, Religion, and Jazz in India, (Afro-South Asia in the Global African Diaspora, Volume 2) eds. Omar Ali, Kenneth Robbins, Beheroze Shroff, and Jazmin Graves. pp.180-197.
2020 “Sensiotics or the Senses in Understandings of Material Culture and History in Africa and Beyond,” Oxford Handbook of History and Material Culture. Oxford University Press, Chapter 14, pp.269-288.
2013 “Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) in India,” African Arts, 46, 1, Spring, cover, pp. 617, 26-9
MEMBERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Indigo Arts Alliance (Portland-Maine) – member, Advisory Board
West African Research Association (WARA) – Board Member
National Museum of African Art-Smithsonian Institution (National Advisory Board (second 3-year term)
BLAC Foundation (Board of Trustees Member)
HONORS/AWARDS/GRANTS
2020 Distinguished Teaching Award, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA)
2020 Symposium “Crossing Oceans and Hemispheres – Honoring the Career of Henry Drewal,” National Museum of African Art-Smithsonian, February 27-28
2020 Emeritus status, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2019 The 2019 Ruth Hetterer Harris Lecture, School of Human Ecology-UW-M, November 13.
2019 The 2019 Margaret Herz Demant Award for African Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, October 27.
2019 Paul Mellon Visiting Senior Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, January/February 2020.
2019 African Studies Program, UW-Madison – Faculty International Travel Grant for work at the Verger Foundation, Salvador, Bahia-Brazil.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE (CURATORIAL)
In progress - Consultant for the Spiral3 – African Homeland and Diasporas film with Raynald LeConte.
In progress - Consultant for the J. K. Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History, Lagos, Nigeria (RAA Design Firm based in London, UK).
In progress - Consultant for Conjuring Collage: African Diaspora in the Art of Romare Bearden, an internationally traveling exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Art-New Orleans, curated by Prof. Robert O'Meally, Columbia University.
2018 Co-Curator (with Head Curator Tom Joyce, and co-curators Allen Roberts, Bill Dewey), Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths. Being organized by the Fowler Museum-UCLA. (NEH Planning & Implementation Grants awarded – opening June 2-3, 2018).
2018 Curator, Whirling Return of the Ancestors: Egungun Arts of the Yoruba in Africa and Beyond, exhibition at the Ruth Davis Design Gallery-SOHE, UW-Madison, January 24-April 8, 2018.
2017 Curator, Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) of India, the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, MA, February 13 - June 15, 2018.
2017 Co-curator (with Sarah Khan), exhibition and sale of Siddi quilts at the International Folk Art Market (IFAM), Santa Fe, NM, July 11 - 18, 2017.
2016 Curator, Special exhibition of Siddi Patchwork Quilts, Modern Quilt Guild QuiltCon., Savannah, GA (2017).
2015 Co-Curator (with Sarah Khan), Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) of India, the African American Museum in Philadephia, September 2-January 30, 2016.
2014 Member, Curatorial Advisory Committee, the McMillan Collection, Reginald Lewis Museum, Baltimore.
2014 Co-Curator (with Brenda Baker), Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) of India, Madison Children’s Museum, February-June.
2013 Curator, Double Fortune, Double Trouble: Art for Twins among the Yoruba, Fowler Museum-UCLA, Fall 2013.
2011 Co-Curator (with Sarah K. Khan), Tasting Cultures: The Arts of Latino Foodways, United Community Center, Milwaukee, WI, March 4-July 19.
2011 Curator, Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) of India, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NY, February 1-June 30. (a traveling exhibition)
2010 Curatorial Consultant, Art/Object: Recontextualizing African Art, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA, July-August.
2009-10 Curator (with Professor Freida High W. Tesfagiorgis and Matthew Rarey) of the new permanent African art gallery, Chazen Museum of Art, UW-Madison.
2009 Curator, Patchwork Quilts of the Africans (Siddis) of India (a traveling exhibition – see exhibitions).
2009 Curator, Joyful Blues: Yoruba Indigo Dyed Textile Arts (Adire) (a traveling exhibition– see exhibitions)
2009 Co-Curator (with Sarah K. Khan), Tasting Cultures: The Art of African/ American Foodways, Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, College of Charleston, SC, June 2-September 7.
2008 Curator, Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum at UCLA.
2006 Curator, Siddi Quilt Turning, Chazen Museum of Art, UW-M, April 30.
2006 Curator, Photographic exhibit of African (Siddi) Quilters of Northern Karantaka, India , TADIA Conference on the African Diaspora in Asia, International Centre-Goa, India, January 9-14.
2005 Curator, Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) in India , Design Gallery, SOHE, UW-Madison, August-September.
2005 Curator, Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans in India , Saint Mary's Hall, San Antonio , Texas , February.