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Miami Art Museum
Miami, Florida
September 20-December 1,1996
Reviewed by Marcilene Wittmer
"Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou" was already installed at the Center for the Fine Arts when it recently metamorphosed into the Miami Art Museum of Dade County. As the new museum's proclaimed mission is "to exhibit, collect, preserve and interpret international art with a focus on the art of the Western Hemisphere from the World War II era to the present," it was appropriate that this exhibition should mark its debut. "Sacred Arts" was a source of great pride for Miami's many Haitian residents who have always felt their culture neglected by the city. Seldom has an exhibition reflected so directly the life of the community in which it was presented. Beginning with the openingnight celebration featuring drumming and dancing in the museum's plaza, the city's Haitians flocked to the exhibition as to a sacred pilgrimage site. For Miami, "Sacred Arts" called attention to a rich culture already in our midst, one that has been unrecognized and unappreciated. The many parallels with other Caribbean cultures including Cuban Santeria also excited local interest.
This traveling exhibition, curated by Donald J. Cosentino and Marilyn Houlberg for the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History (October 22,1995-June 16,1996), provided an excellent introduction to the arts of Haiti and Vodou, a religion that is all too often misunderstood. Museum administrators had been concerned that stereotypes might prove difficult to overcome, but that issue apparently was not a problem for the large numbers of people who visited the exhibition. I do know of a few diehards whose presumptions unfortunately kept them away, but those who did attend "Sacred Arts" were rewarded with a rich aesthetic and educational experience.
While the significance of the invocation to Legba at the entrance to the installation may have been lost on the average visitor, the rest of the exhibition offered a thorough, step-by-step explanation of the subject of Vodou. The first gallery introduced the history and culture of Haiti through paintings of historical events and brief but informative labels. The back half of that gallery included photographs, paintings of landscapes and religious subjects, and a short video on Vodou. Thus prepared, the viewer entered the next gallery, which represented each of the major...