Earlier this month, the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork introduced “Head to Toe: African and Asian Wearables,” a group of over 50 items to assist introduce its new Brind Middle for African and African Diasporic Artwork.
The everlasting galleries of the Brind Middle will open in Fall 2026, with a spotlight of “increasing the scope and attain of the museum’s assortment of artwork from throughout Africa, the Americas and the broader African Diaspora.”
The middle was established in 2022 by Ira Brind, a member of the museum’s board of trustees, along with his spouse Stacey Spector. The present assortment is within the far finish of what is going to ultimately be the everlasting gallery of the Brind Middle, working alongside a walkway from the PMA’s discussion board to the Spring Backyard Bridge.
Brind additionally gifted the gathering for “Head to Toe,” which he gathered over half a century along with his late spouse, Myrna. He described gifting his assortment to the museum as a “dream come true.”
“I attempted to solely accumulate museum-quality items and I didn’t see till Imani [Roach, the center’s director] identified to me that there was a course of the physique and of wearables,” Brind mentioned. “I solely purchased what spoke to me. Masks by no means spoke to me.”
“What’s most particular to me about this assortment … is its humanity,” museum CEO Sasha Suda mentioned at a launch occasion for the gathering, which included a efficiency by Philly drag queen and former “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestant Sapphira Cristál. “You’ll be able to go to different giant encyclopedic museums — I received’t identify any — they usually’re filled with masks and never these objects. They’re not made for shrines. They’re not faraway from day-to-day life, however as an alternative they’re wearable artwork, meant to reinforce pure human magnificence.”
Roach, the inaugural director for the middle and the curator of the African works, mentioned that with the wearables, she centered on key supplies which can be distinguished and necessary on the African continent, however don’t essentially get the identical stage of illustration elsewhere within the museum.
“[We’re] actually making an attempt to introduce folks to the which means of issues,” Roach mentioned. “Like how does raffia [palm] signify in varied contexts in Africa? What’s the significance of the cowrie shell? What’s the historical past of glass beads? These kinds of issues.”
The exhibition is organized geographically and by way of supplies. Among the many works is a group of beadwork by Yoruba, a West African ethnic group. One piece is a crimson crown original with glass beads that depicts two chameleons on its prime.
Together with the Yoruba works, items come from throughout the continent — South Africa, Kenya, Tunisia, Morocco and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“That’s an necessary side of the exhibition, to introduce and emphasize the range and that clearly Africa isn’t a rustic,” Roach mentioned. “It’s many countries with a whole lot and probably 1000’s of varied peoples.”
The number of Asian wearables within the assortment, curated by Hiromi Kinoshita, come from ethnic minorities in China, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, quite than the Han works which can be sometimes proven in museums. One merchandise is a butterfly-shaped bridal headdress from the Yao group in China’s Guangxi province, made with lacquered cotton plain weave, bamboo, glass beads and silk yarns.
Linked continents
The shared concept of the side-by-side African and Asian exhibitions is their relation to the human physique and serious about the supplies used. Roach mentioned that Kinoshita selected to show wearables partially to emphasise works that aren’t sometimes proven from their respective areas and traditionally have been undervalued by western museums.
“There’s been a type of emphasis usually solely on wood sculpture, when the fact [includes] textile arts, wearables, jewellery that not solely present unimaginable artistry however have deep significance,” Roach mentioned.
Roach identified that regardless of the huge distance of the 2 continents, silver coinage touring from one to the opposite was usually recast. Cowrie shells, too, are current in each, although the historical past and which means surrounding them differs.
“There’s a type of treasure hunt of connections you’ll be able to go on … it’s to not conflate them, however it’s to allow them to exist in parallel,” she mentioned.
The works additionally spotlight one other group usually underrepresented within the artwork world: ladies.
“Oftentimes, beadwork [or] textile work is ladies’s work, and ladies artists are underrepresented in museums not solely after we’re speaking about African materials however writ giant,” she mentioned. “So I do suppose that’s a precedent that I’d prefer to set, to actually make it possible for the middle can also be speaking about African ladies’s artistry as nicely.”
A broader story
When the Brind Middle opens totally subsequent yr, Roach mentioned that it’s going to inform a broader story about Africa and its diaspora, centered on the folks. Pictures, costume and textile examples might be added.
“The objective completely isn’t restricted to my assortment. It’s meant to be broad-based. It’s meant to be modern, fashionable and go throughout many various worlds and knowledge,” Brind mentioned.
Brind mentioned that his present to the middle and the museum will ultimately complete 400 objects — about 60% African, 40% Asian.
One other objective of the middle is to carry it out to Philadelphia’s communities in an interactive means earlier than the total house within the museum opens. One initiative to do this might be commissioning an “art-mobile” to move a few of the artworks to native museums and church buildings.
“I believe one of many issues that’s going to be actually necessary is to empower Philadelphians to obtain the work, to have interaction the work,” Roach mentioned. “To not really feel like passive receivers of the work, however to actually have sturdy opinions.”
The middle’s deal with the African diaspora will embody Philly’s place in it.
“The Philadelphia context is a vital a part of the African diaspora,” Roach mentioned. “Black folks in Philadelphia have performed an unimaginable position within the historical past of this metropolis and in addition an unimaginable position within the historical past of Pan-Africanist actions worldwide … The diaspora is wherever that African individuals are or have been, which is admittedly all over the place.”“Head to Toe: African and Asian Wearables” inaugural presentation runs from Could 9 to Jan 19, 2026.