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One of the challenges of curating the so-called non-Western arts in a North American museum space is thinking about how to connect diverse audiences with the unique objects on display and their complex and sometimes unfamiliar histories. Catherine Hale discusses her integration of GIS technology in her projects at the University of Iowa Museum of Art as well as her fieldwork in Ghana, West Africa, in terms of its potential for cross-cultural connections and education, both local and global. Featuring the University of Iowa Museum of Art Mapping Project, which she is developing through the WorldMap platform, Hale illustrates how digitally mapping art objects in combination with layers of historical, socio-political and environmental data opens up new ways of thinking and encourages inquiry in disciplines ranging from medicine to literature. Catherine Hale is Curator of African and Non-Western Art at the University of Iowa Museum of Art. She is currently completing her PhD in African Art at Harvard University, where her research focuses on the Asante peoples of Ghana, West Africa. Her recent curatorial projects include Interplay: Material, Method, and Motif in West African Art at the Figge Museum, Davenport and Conversation Pieces: African Textiles from Barbara and Bill McCann's Collection at the Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa. Hale received a B.A. in Art History from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario (2004), a Masters in Art and Its Institutions from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario (2006), and an Artium Magister Degree in History of Art & Architecture (African) from Harvard University (2008). In addition to English, Hale can also read and speak French and Twi, an Asante dialect.
Learn more about the ICFRC at their website.