Following up on our March post about the first installment of this exhibition at The Hood Museum at Dartmouth, we are pleased to announce:
Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art of the Papuan Gulf
October 24, 2006–September 3, 2007
The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, 1st floor
Excerpts from the unpublished manuscript of the pioneering photographer Kathleen Haddon chronicle indigenous ceremonies and traditions of the Papuan Gulf in the early 20th century:
Listen to the audio file [click above] 
(4.3 MB)
Listen to the full audio program. 
(RealPlayer: 8:52 minutes)
This exhibition presents some 60 powerful and graphically elaborate sculptures and 30 rare historical photographs from the Gulf province of Papua New Guinea. The sacred objects, alongside photographs that show them in context, demonstrate the deep connection between art and community life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Drawn from public and private collections, as well as the Museum's own holdings, many of the works are being exhibited for the first time in the only in-depth investigation of these art traditions in 45 years.
The selection of rare historical photographs—some exhibited for the first time—taken by early travelers to the Papuan Gulf is drawn from The Photograph Study Collection of the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
Accompanied by a catalogue by Robert L. Welsch, Virginia-Lee Webb, and Sebastian Haraha, 2006.
The exhibition is made possible by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.
It was organized by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College [more info], in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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