The Museum for African Art, 1993
New York, NY

Associated Architect: David Hotson
General Contractor: Herbert Construction
Cabinetmaker: Scott Horst

I envisioned the design of this museum as a path— an educational passage through light and dark, signifying a journey from night into day.

The museum is on two levels. As you enter the space, the color of the walls is a shadowy gray-brown, which accentuates the lit openings leading from the entry to the exhibit halls as well as to the display vestibules in the shop, where the pottery and craft objects are silhouetted.

These openings in the shop display are similar to the openings in the staircase wall that allow glimpses to the artwork beyond. By making this connection I wanted to draw attention to the cultural implications of removing a work of art or artifact from its original context and placing it in another culture’s context. Why do we perceive some works as art and others as craft? I wanted to highlight both forms of work, yet I did not want to overemphasize the shop display. The entire wall of the shop is carefully designed so that these display niches are discreet, limited to a few openings until you reach the bookstore. At that point, the display wall is completely revealed, emphasizing the educational purpose of the museum.

Throughout the space there are highly irregular curved forms, from the reception desk to the front and rear stairs. The curves for the stairways are free-hand drawings. I had to go on site with my staff and draw these shapes— they are not mathematically based radii, so they cannot be described by a geometric formula. They had to be enlarged and directly transferred from my original sketches. I then adjusted each form at the site. This was sone so that as you walk through, one will sense the presence of the human hand.