September 15 – December 3, 2016
AFRICA FORECAST: Fashioning Contemporary Life, an original exhibition, launched the Museum’s twentieth anniversary. The exhibition positioned fashion through two overlapping perspectives: an ever-changing global marketplace and the unique ways that black women throughout the African Diaspora construct their lives. AFRICA FORECAST featured work by black women artists and designers who shape, imagine, and redefine the impact of lifestyle in highly imaginative ways.
For the groundbreaking artists and designers in AFRICA FORECAST, style inspires new approaches to dressing, social relationships, and activism. They stretch the boundaries of fashion’s influence in art and design, reflecting its ability to communicate complex social and cultural perspectives. As a result, the exhibition encouraged visitors to explore fashion’s changing shape in art and in their daily lives. AFRICA FORECAST provided a dynamic snapshot of this global reflection on style through garments, photography, video, painting, and sculpture.
AFRICA FORECAST: Fashioning Contemporary Life was curated by Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, Ph.D., and Erika Dalya Massaquoi, Ph.D.
AFRICA FORECAST: Fashioning Contemporary Life Museum Homepage