Okoye delivers keynote address at SUNY New Paltz

Professor Ikem S. Okoye was one of two keynote speakers at a series of weekend events at SUNY New Paltz, April 5-6, and during which he presented his work in a lecture titled: "Confusing the Ancient and the Modern in Global Art History--An African Conundrum." The events, including a symposium "Studies in African Art," were mainly in honor of the 100th birthday anniversary of Japanese art specialist Hugo Munsterberg (1916-1995), who was also one of the earliest proponents in the United States of the idea that art history expand its scope to encompass the diversity of global art--now familiar in course requirements and/or distribution, for majors in art history in typical undergraduate curricula. Munsterberg, a German emigré, was founder of SUNY New Paltz's Art History department. He was also the force behind that university's inauguration of an African Studies Program, in advance of most other American universities. The other keynote speaker was a former undergraduate art history major mentored by Munsterberg: Dr. Christine Kreamer, who went on to be a scholar of West African and South East Asian art (Ghana, Vietnam, and Indonesia), and who is currently Acting Director and Chief Curator, National Museum of African Art (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.).