January 22, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Many Ethiopian artists remain largely unknown outside Ethiopia and a narrow circle of international curators and collectors. With the exhibition Continuity and Change: Three Generations of Ethiopian Artists, the Harn Museum of Art will introduce a number of these artists to U.S. audiences for the first time.

Visitors of the museum can explore the history of modern and contemporary art in Ethiopia with the Harn Museum’s director and co-curator of the exhibition, Rebecca Martin Nagy at her Feb. 4 gallery talk. The gallery talk begins at 3 p.m.

Nagy, a graduate of Georgia Southern University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, assumed the position of Director of the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida in Gainesville in July 2002. Previously, she spent seventeen years at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, where she held various positions in the Education and Curatorial departments. She has also served as an instructor in the department of art history and education at the Cleveland Museum of Art, adjunct instructor at Case Western Reserve University, and adjunct faculty member at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.. She was a National Merit Scholar (1971–1975), a Danforth Fellow (1975–1979), a Fellow at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg through the International Partnership Among Museums Program (1994), and received Fulbright Fellowships for study in Germany (1980–1981) and Ghana, West Africa (2000).

Her Ethiopian exhibition at the Harn Museum, co-curated by North Carolina Central University Professor Achamyeleh Debela, tells the story of art in Ethiopia from the 1940s to the present. It explores the role of Emperor Haile Selassie’s support of artists as part of a purposeful strategy for the modernization of Ethiopia. The exhibition also examines the influence of the School of Fine Arts in Addis Ababa, one of Africa’s leading art academies.  In particular, Continuity and Change focuses on those artists who were and are active in Addis Ababa within the context of the political and social upheavals of 20th century Ethiopia.

Admission to the Harn Museum of Art is free. For more information about fall programs and events call 352.392.9826 or visit www.harn.ufl.edu.

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The Harn Museum, at SW 34^th St. and Hull Rd., Gainesville, Fla., is one of the southeast’s largest university art museums with more than 6,200 works in its collection and an array of temporary exhibitions. Admission is free. The museum enhances the activities of the University and serves a culturally diverse audience through educational programming. The Harn expanded by more than 18,000 square feet in Oct. 2005 with the opening of the Mary Ann Harn Cofrin Pavilion, which includes new educational and meeting areas and the Camellia Court Cafe, the first eatery for visitors of the University of Florida Cultural Plaza. Museum Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The Camellia Court Café is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. The Museum and Café are open until 10 p.m. Thursdays for Museum Nights. For more information call 352.392.9826 or visit www.harn.ufl.edu.