The African Arts & Culture Discussion Group

Fellow African art collector Lee Rubinstein and myself launched a discussion group on African art and culture on March 1st, 2005.
Our aim is for this group to be a place where collectors of all levels can freely ask questions, share knowledge and experiences and
hopefully learn a little in the process.

I personally want to make this discussion group an educational and interactive place for all African art collectors in the world.
Our mission statement
The African Arts & Culture discussion group provides an open forum for sharing ideas, insights, questions and announcements regarding
a broad range of African creative expressions from historical works originating within and among “traditional” cultures on the African
continent to more recent and contemporary ‘tradition-based” objects and performances from Africa and throughout the increasingly global
African cultural Diaspora.

Exploring traditional African cultural and aesthetic forms AND modern tradition-based works (with an eye toward the future), it is our goal to
facilitate discussion of all content focusing upon African artistic production and expression as well as the dynamic contexts of history and
migration through which the traditional forms have arisen and evolved. We encourage open, respectful discourse on and inquiry into 1)
objects of African traditional material culture 2) the ceremonial, ritual, economic and day-to-day events from and for which these objects
have historically been generated and 3) more recent and/or contemporary works (objects and performances) through which these
tradition-based forms persist.

We seek to include all diverse interests, knowledge and curiosity of forum participants and to encourage thoughtful contributions and
thought-provoking queries regarding African objects, visual and performance arts, ritual and aesthetic productions, at rest or in motion,
from any point in time. While remaining open to a broad range of perspectives, disciplines and styles of analysis, we request that
submissions be offered with the goal of illuminating an area of inquiry and respect at all times the varied perspectives of all participants
and visitors.

The group is moderated and presented by Lee Rubinstein and Rand Smith
Do you have a piece in your collection that you're not sure about and would like the advice of fellow collectors?
Do you have questions, experiences or stories that you would like to share with other collectors?
Do you want a place where you can interact with other collectors out there?

The discussion group is not a commercial launch pad, we generally do not allow items for sale to be posted, but if you are a collector
looking to possibly sell pieces from your collection or looking for others to trade with you will be allowed to post a message asking people to
contact you.

The African Arts and Culture discussion group has members from all over the world with varied levels of knowledge and experience.
I try and share various articles about all aspects of African art and culture that I find interesting with the group.

It is a small, but growing group of collectors - 400 (+/-) people from all around the globe since the group was started in March 2005.
I invite you to join the group and ask a question or share an experience and interact with collectors from around the world!
Click on the link above to join the new African Arts discussion group on Yahoo! and join in on the conversation or start
your own. If you have a piece in your collection that you are unsure of or want more information you can ask the group, or
just sit back and read the emails about the various topics brought up. Many people will post information about exhibitions
or shows around the world and also interesting articles in the news that relate to African art. Join and check it out!
Rand African Art
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