NARRATOR: This mask is different from every other mask in this gallery… because it would have been worn and performed by a woman. Female masking performances are rare in Africa. The Sowei mask plays an important role in the all-female Sande Society. This society is a lifelong network of women among the Vai, Mende and neighboring peoples in present-day Sierra Leone.
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CHRISTRAUD GEARY: Now if you look at the Portuguese soldier, there are certain details that I don’t want you to miss. One is that everything is articulated in the greatest detail. Look at his hands, they’re beautifully done, and look at the fact that you can see his fingernails, even. Look at his feet, same thing, they’re beautifully executed.
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The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has been an internationally renowned art museum, a key educator, and an essential contributor to our city and region…
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RONNI BAER: When I first looked at this painting in the context of this exhibition, I asked myself, “How can we tell the difference between a mistress…
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June 2017 In 2020, the MFA will celebrate the 150th anniversary of its founding. Our shared vision for 2020 declares a set of MFA priorities for the…
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February 24, 2017 My museum director colleagues in Boston and I have co-authored a letter outlining the importance of the National Endowment for the…
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LIZ MUNSELL: Today we're inaugurating a sculpture by the Argentinian-born, London-based artist, Amalia Pica. It's called "Now, Speak!" It's a cast concrete lectern, that's a platform for the public's voice and for invited speakers today. Most of them are addressing civil rights issues through their speeches which they've chosen from history. The only requirement of the piece is that the speaker must choose a speech by somebody who has different physical characteristics from them. That way there's an element of displacement and interpretation of history over time.
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The following is a transcript of Walter Carrington's January 20, 2014 reading of an excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, as part of…