Nov

Kreamer is 2018 Distinguished Scholar in the Humanities

UPDATED Dec. 20 with video of webcast.

Dr. Christine Mullen Kreamer, Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the National Museum of African Art, has been chosen to receive the 2018 Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar Award in the Humanities. The award, first given in 2000, celebrates excellence in all branches of Smithsonian scholarship by honoring the sustained achievement of two outstanding Smithsonian scholars each year—one in the sciences and one in the humanities. The winners are asked to deliver a lecture on some aspect of their work and receive a medal and a contribution to their research funds.

Head shot of Creamer — Christine M. Kreamer

One need only run a quick search through Smithsonian Research Online to see the extent of Dr. Kreamer’s scholarship. She was engaged in award-winning work before completion of her dissertation, which focused on the sacred contexts of Moba arts of northern Togo. Her subsequent Moba-focused papers and publications range from discussions of ritual in relation to the arts, to minimalism in African art, and the ethical impacts of increasing the value of objects as a result of one’s research.

Two of her most acclaimed publications—the books Inscribing Meaning (which received a Smithsonian Secretary’s research award and honorable mention for the Arts Council of the African Studies Association) and African Cosmos,—were written after she joined the staff of the National Museum of African Art. In the first, Dr. Kreamer partnered with leading scholars of the arts to examine the interplay between visual arts and the written word in relation to the sacred, the body, and performance. In the second, she moves from the astronomical observations of ancient Egyptians and Nubians through cosmically inspired arts of Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria, and to the aspirational works of Willem Boshoff, Karel Nel and other leading contemporary artists.

Currently, she is developing a project tentatively entitled the “Creativity of Work” that examines the intersections between career and functionality with art forms and aesthetics. In addition, she hopes to return to her life-long love of minimalist art with an exhibition focused on its African iterations. Dr. Kreamer recently completed for publication an article on connoisseurship in relation to the Smithsonian’s Ivory initiative—an outgrowth of her involvement on the pan-SI Ivory advisory group and her influential and ongoing scholarship on and advocacy for the essential and under-emphasized skills of connoisseurship in current visual arts practice.

Christine Kreamer presented her lecture, “The Creativity of Work: Knowledge, Power, and Aesthetic Experience in the Arts of Africa,” Wednesday, Dec. 19, at 11:00 a.m. in the National Museum of the American Indian’s Rasmuson Theater.

Watch the webcast: