For Immediate Release: August 24, 2007
Media Contacts: Bryna Lipper , Johanna Weber

Lasting Foundations Exhibition: News Release

New Exhibition Surveys African Architecture, Past and Present

Washington, DC—Africa's architecture is a living art form, which incorporates ideas about family, home, and community into its very structure. Lasting Foundations: The Art of Architecture in Africa is the first U.S. exhibition to survey African architecture, past and present, from Timbuktu to Johannesburg, and highlight some of the creative architectural solutions Africans have devised in constructing shelters, ceremonial buildings, and cities. Lasting Foundations will be on display at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC from October 6, 2007 through January 13, 2008. The exhibition was organized by the Museum for African Art, New York, and is sponsored by Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.

"This landmark exhibition conveys for the first time the beauty of African architecture and the integral relationship between architecture and the lives of the people who made it," noted Elsie McCabe, president of the Museum for African Art.

"We believe that the African American community will experience great pride in the beauty and cultural relevance of Lasting Foundations," said Sabina McCarthy, Washington/Virginia regional managing director at Merrill Lynch, "and we hope that it enables viewers to learn about this relatively unknown art form from Africa."

Showcasing original artifacts, architectural elements, and images of architecture in contemporary African art, Lasting Foundations surveys the innovative and varied forms used in African homes, palaces, and public spaces. Intricately carved house posts, doors, locks, window frames, textiles, and photographs showing murals and sculpture on actual buildings, demonstrate the variety and richness of Africa's domestic and ceremonial architectural traditions. The exhibition examines how Africa's architects have created structures—whether it be mosques or churches meant to last for generations, or residential structures continuously evolving with the ebb and flow of daily life—that are practical and beautiful, adapted to the landscape, and imbued with symbolic significance.

Many of the most striking sculptural buildings in Africa are made of mud bricks. A film by Susan Vogel showing the annual re-plastering of the Jenne mosque, the largest mud structure in the world, is featured in the exhibition. Lasting Foundations also considers how architecture has influenced the work of contemporary African artists, including the photographers Allan deSouza, Stephen Hobbs, and Guy Tillim. 

Lasting Foundations was curated by Dr. Enid Schildkrout, Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Publications, Museum for African Art, along with Jerry Vogel, Deputy Director, Museum for African Art, and Laurie Ann Farrell, Executive Director of Exhibitions, The Savannah College of Art and Design.

The National Building Museum is America’s leading cultural institution dedicated to exploring and celebrating architecture, design, engineering, construction, and planning. Chartered by Congress in 1980 and open to the public since 1985, the Museum has become a vital forum for exchanging ideas and information about the built environment through its exhibitions, education programs, and publications. The Museum is located at 401 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. Museum hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Admission is free. Museum Shop. Café. Public inquiries: 202.272.2448 or visit www.nbm.org.