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The article discusses the role of handheld regalia in showcasing rank and prestige among Yoruba elites, particularly in Ọ̀wọ̀, emphasizing the significance of objects like swords, staffs, and beaded adornments in ceremonial and ritual contexts. It also discusses the cultural history of Ọ̀wọ̀'s hierarchy, the evolution of these symbolic objects from weaponry to regalia, and the ongoing collaboration between artists and titleholders to innovate within traditional practices.

The article discusses the impact of British colonialism and Christian missionary activity on Igbo art and culture, particularly focusing on the documentation of the traditional art form uli by colonial anthropologists. It also discusses the tension between tradition and modernity caused by colonialism, the role of the Nsukka School in reviving uli as part of a decolonial movement, and the paradox of using colonial archives as tools for cultural re-armament.

The article provides a guide for art teachers on engaging English learners through a visual arts culture fair. It identifies the needs and assets common to English learners in classrooms where English is spoken. Strategies to help English learners participate in the fair include making a word wall, asking students to connect their artmaking to family histories and cultural traditions, and choice-based arrangement for creating mini art projects such as drawings, collage, painting and posters.

This paper has two main aims. The first is to examine our normative relations to artworks and cultural artefacts threatened by damage or destruction. The second aim is to develop an argument for the notion of aesthetic obligation, offering an alternative model of explanation of our normative relations to artworks and cultural artefacts which relies neither exclusively on the object of appreciation ('object-oriented approach') nor on the appreciating subject ('subject-oriented approach'). Instead, an aesthetic obligation is held to be directed primarily towards the community which appreciates the object on the grounds of its aesthetic value. That which unites an aesthetic community is the practice of valuing an object for its aesthetic character. The notion of aesthetic obligation thus relies both on the community of subjects which holds an object in high aesthetic regard and that same object's aesthetic value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is systematic epistemic asymmetry between different centers of art production: we know far more about some (e.g. fifteenth-century Italian paintings) than about others (e.g. fifteenth-century Inca textiles). As long as we are focusing on the social context of the artworks or the artist's intention, this epistemic asymmetry remains, given that we have vastly more information about the social context of the artworks or the artist's intention when it comes to 'Western' art—again, because of the historically contingent differences in record-keeping and the survival rate of such records. If we want to overcome the epistemic asymmetry between 'Western' and 'Non-Western' art, we need to look elsewhere. I will argue, using Franz Boas's work, that we should look for formal features. In order to avoid the epistemic asymmetry that follows from the historically contingent fact that we have more information about some cultures than about others, we need to start our analysis with formal categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Actas de Diseño is the property of Facultad de Diseno y Comunicacion, Fundacion Universidad de Palermo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

From the eighteenth through the twentieth century when the US government fluctuated between genocidal and assimilation policies directed at Native American people, non-Native artists frequently depicted images of Native American motherhood. Pictures classicizing Native mothers sanitized acts of violence against Native people, minimized their perceived exoticism, and demonstrated that specifically women had the capacity to assimilate to models of US motherhood. Contradicting this, a number of images also cast skepticism on the potential for Native women to assimilate to US culture and gender norms. Here I discuss how motherhood was politicized in non-Native depictions of Native women and reflected concurrent debates about Native futures in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses various reforms and efforts undertaken in the modern era in the field of Azerbaijani television to develop the national spiritual values of the Azerbaijani people and youth, and to preserve their national spirit. The independence of Azerbaijan following the 70-year collapse of the Soviet Union played a direct role in its culture and the field of television. The article presents facts based on many new programs, including those prepared during the Soviet era. It addresses issues and methods in the Azerbaijani television sector during both periods. The focus is on the entire history of the establishment of Azerbaijan State Television, its stages of development, and all related matters. The article examines the core of program formats related to art, culture, and literature that have historically manifested themselves in the development history of television. Emphasizing the clarification of the role of art in the formation of the aesthetic ideals of society, including its aspects (genres, types), is deemed more appropriate. The widespread interest in culture, in connection with its functions such as educational, heritage, and social existence preservation, is highlighted. Years of experience have once again proven that it is absolutely necessary to learn from professional experts in the Azerbaijani television space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two early nineteenth-century monuments in St Paul's register the growing significance of the empire in India: John Bacon Sr and Jr's monument to Bengal judge William Jones, and J. C. F. Rossi's monument to the Governor General, Lord Cornwallis; the artists took the opportunity to explore the possibilities of Hindu art and Indian culture within the Christian space of St Paul's. This article looks at the origins of the iconography of the two monuments, suggesting how the juxtaposition of classical, Christian and Hindu motifs in the monument to Jones suggested Bacon's promulgation of a type of visual religious teaching, homologous with Jones's comparative religious studies, while Rossi elaborated a theme of fertility using a mixture of themes from contemporary land reform and the Hindu Ramayana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the COVID-19 virus continues to circulate, there is an increasing insistence that the world "return to normal." In this paper the authors resist this pull to normalcy and the way it devalues the knowledges, vitality, and livelihoods of disabled people. They examine the crip technoscience practices used during the 2022 digital gathering Practicing the Social: Entanglements of Art and Social Justice, situating them as examples of cultural accessibility that engage with slow technology to provoke crip(ped) ways of being in time. They argue that sustained engagement with cultural accessibility offers a different path through the pandemic, one that centers access and resists the way necropolitics devalues disabled life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Actas de Diseño is the property of Facultad de Diseno y Comunicacion, Fundacion Universidad de Palermo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this article is to deepen our understanding of the moral outlook that characterizes cultural organizations as political actors. Through a review of contributions to a public consultation on cultural policy in Norway, we seek to elucidate the moral economy these actors bring to bear on their relations to the state. More specifically, we focus on the actors' understandings of the state's moral obligations towards the cultural sector and how these notions relate to the experiences and concerns of cultural organizations. One such experience that surfaces in the public consultation is the strong engagement of members of cultural organizations, while another is a sense of vulnerability and perceived threats to art and culture posed by various forces in society. Against this background, we explore different understandings of the roles and responsibilities of the state in cultural policy that cultural organizations give voice to, noting the dominance of a conception of cultural policy as state patronage. In accordance with this understanding, the obligations of the state are to recognize the unique value and importance of cultural organizations, to provide them with the necessary resources, and to protect them from external threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wallace Stevens's "Credences of Summer" (1947), in particular section IV's articulation of "the limits of reality," may be read as significantly German-influenced by connecting two distinct lines of inquiry: the poet's personal connection to Henry and Barbara Church, and his increased interest, from 1944, in genealogical researches on Pennsylvania. By 1947, Stevens's engagement with Germany had evolved from his early, romanticized identifications with a native peasantry to engage with post-WWII Germany as a concept of pure imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Woodcarving motifs, including Negeri Sembilan, are significant in Malaysian art, bearing ancient knowledge and latent meanings. However, the understanding of Malay woodcarving motifs in Kuala Pilah is relatively limited compared to the east coast. The urgency to study these motifs intensifies as urbanization rapidly changes the landscape, representing not only woodcarvers' skills but also profound cultural symbolism. This paper aims to interpret the meanings within these motifs in traditional Malay houses in Kuala Pilah, employing qualitative methods such as observation, interviews, photographic records, and secondary data analysis alongside Ferdinand de Saussure's Semiotics Theory for analysis. The cultural and social significance embedded in these motifs is unveiled through signifier and signified analysis. The results revealed the presence of various motifs encompassing geometry, fauna, flora, and still life. The study also uncovered that each motif plays a pivotal role in conveying the cultural and social values of the Malay people in Negeri Sembilan and enhances our understanding of the traditional art form of woodcarving amidst contemporary transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of translation in contemporary art through a case study of the curatorial project Translation(s), curated by Zoran Poposki in collaboration with Laurence Wood, realized in three editions over five years and involving more than 30 video works by international artists. By exploring the dual significance of translation as a motif and a method, this article investigates how artists engage with the complexities of communication and reinterpretation. The analysis highlights the transformative potential of translation, transcending linguistic barriers and extending into the realm of visual representation, cultural expression, and artistic practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the work of Belitung VR, this article seeks to explore a narrative framework for digital cultural heritage storytelling. Belitung VR is a serious game intended to disseminate cultural knowledge about its subject via VR, wherein users can freely explore the virtual reconstruction of a shipwrecked Arab dhow to learn about historical shipping between China and West Asia while collecting clues to the cause(s) of the wreck. The framework consists of narrative goals (physical and nonphysical), narrative elements (character, world, and plot), and narrative grammar (immersion, interaction, rhetoric, and factuality). This work can serve as a practice guide and evaluative framework for designers/artists with an aspiration to digitally disseminate cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arts and culture gained multiple presence in individual and social life, with economic presence gaining relevance. We focus on social enterprises (SE) in arts and culture standing between the economic-oriented focus on arts and culture, and its socio-political and cultural roles and embeddedness. SEs are characterized by the centrality of a social mission instead of profit and participatory governance. We asked what are SEs in arts and culture and how they are influenced and aim at influencing institutional contexts. We place the research in the context of the Portuguese cultural mix. Based on five in-depth case studies of organisations oriented to the promotion of arts and culture that have social and community interventions, organisations where arts and culture are the main tools for social intervention and social welfare organisations with arts and culture projects, we describe their trajectories and organisational social, economic and governance characteristics. We argue that there is a mix of institutional entrepreneurship, public policies (and their lack) and societal trends influencing SEs pathways towards hybridisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the XXII Balcanicum conference held in Pozna¿, Poland, which focused on the topic of "Miejsca pami¿ci i polityka historyczna w Europie Po¿udniowo-Wschodniej" (Places of Memory and Historical Politics in Southeast Europe). The conference aimed to reflect on various aspects of commemorating figures, processes, and historical events in Southeast Europe, both in the past and present. The conference featured 33 presentations by researchers from Poland and abroad, covering a wide range of topics related to memory, including literature, biblical references, and the creation of national heroes and identity maps in the Balkans. Additionally, the conference addressed the role of historical politics in the lives of societies, regional and local communities, families, and individuals. The presentations also explored the use and reception of various tools of historical politics, such as research, legislation, specialized institutions, memory topography, education, upbringing, and media. The conference also included discussions on the historical politics of Balkan countries, including Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the commemoration of historical figures and events in these countries. The text discusses a conference on memory studies in the Balkans, focusing on the collective memory of nations and ethnic groups in the region. Various topics were presented, including the interpretation of historical events, the role of museums and memorials, and the use of current political events in constructing national narratives. The conference also [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses Tijana Vukovi¿'s book, which examines the challenges of preserving and interpreting Yugoslav heritage in Serbia. The author focuses on six cultural institutions in Serbia, including state-funded museums and alternative cultural centers, and analyzes their attempts to reclaim and reinterpret Yugoslav references in contemporary Serbian culture. The book provides insights into the reception of Yugoslav history and its impact on Serbian cultural identity. It highlights the fragmented nature of the official narrative and the individualized artistic and intellectual responses to it. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores three portraits of Bessie Head: a photograph by George Hallett, a painting by Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, and a sculpture by Claudette Schreuders. It argues that these portraits each symbolise Head to a certain degree: Hallett wanted to capture the Artist in Exile; Nkosi wanted to capture a Struggle Hero; and Schreuders wanted to capture a Fellow South African. This paper is interested in how all three of these artists –although to different ends and effects–each mythologise Bessie Head, and how this relates to a broader project of national mythology. In this way, this analysis hopes to contribute to a greater understanding of Bessie Head in the cultural imagination of South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2022, China Central Television released a five-episode documentary about Rongbaozhai, one of the oldest stationery companies and art galleries in China, to celebrate its 350th anniversary. This was part of the global propaganda aiming to reintroduce traditional Chinese cultural brands and their products under Xi's art and culture policy of 'telling China's stories well'. One of the episodes is dedicated to the woodblock facsimiles of traditional Chinese paintings (mubanshuiyin) that Rongbaozhai produced in the 1950s and 1960s following Mao's literature and art policy. However, the perspective of the storytelling is almost entirely focused on technical details. Little has been mentioned about these exquisitely crafted prints' political function as specimens to demonstrate PRC's cultural orthodoxy to traditional Chinese arts and crafts and its resolution of restoring Chinese cultural heritage. Drawing on archival materials, memoirs of former employees and a case study of the first mubanshuiyin reproduction – zanhua shinü tu (Court Ladies Wearing Flowered Headdresses) – this article traces the development of this unique art form during its golden age when it was marketed as both diplomatic gifts and souvenirs and a paradigm of collective craftsmanship by proletariat artisans. As a frequently used gift-giving practice for culture promotion, this article also unveils the contribution of mubanshuiyin reproductions to China's soft power building and early art diplomacy from the 1950s to 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article recounts the acquisition of a rare Hopewell monitor pipe from Waupaca County, Wisconsin, and explores the implications of its origin in a region not typically associated with Hopewell artifacts. It mentions the possible cultural exchanges and religious significance of the pipe, shedding light on the complexities of its history and use.

The article discusses the rich history of Indigenous art in Wisconsin, spanning over 13,000 years. It emphasizes the adaptation and survival of Indigenous people on this land over generations. how Indigenous cultures in Wisconsin evolved, from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to farming.Topics include the the significance of rock art in Wisconsin,the role of archaeologists in studying Indigenous artifacts and using technologies like Carbon-14 dating, and the construction of earthen effigy mounds.

The article discusses the works of artist Laura Arminda Kingsley, who explores themes of biology, evolution, and the interconnectedness of life through a variety of media. It mentions that her art challenges conventional notions of human identity and cultural plurality by emphasizing the shared origins and evolutionary connections among all living beings.

Cultural theories of art were developed to account for the arthood of nonaesthetic and nonimitative artworks. Historical theories such as those proposed by Jerrold Levinson, James Carney, and Noël Carroll fail to account for the arthood of first art and ethnological objects, as does the disjunctive theory of Stephen Davies. An institutional (artworld-based) theory, such as George Dickie's 1977 version, can account for the arthood of art made within the context of an artworld. But what of objects that are art now but were not made in an artworld context? I add a supplement to Dickie's institutional theory: the concept of art by proxy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]