Opening Reception Scheduled for 'Collecting Burma' Exhibit

Contact: Dwight Woodward, Center for International Studies, (740) 593-1842. For more information go to: http://www.ohiou.edu/seas/

ATHENS, Ohio (May 14, 2001) -- An opening reception for the "Collecting Burma" exhibit at Ohio University's Alden Library in Athens will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 15, in the Southeast Asian Collection area on the first floor of Alden.

"Collecting Burma" includes objects from the Burke Gallery Collections of Denison University and will be on exhibit at Alden Library through Nov. 20 during regular library hours. "Collecting Burma" introduces Burmese Buddhism to viewers and presents a history of missionaries in Burma during the 19th and 20th centuries. The show includes Buddhist images, Burmese textiles and objects created by and for the colonial and missionary audience.

The title, "Collecting Burma," defines western culture of the 19th and 20th centuries as a collecting culture, amassing material objects for personal and economic interests. Many of the objects in the show serve as symbols of the exotic cultures and worldviews missionaries were converting. This exhibit illustrates a conversation between the Burmese and colonials, as many of the Burmese works reveal the artists' interest in collecting and employing foreign objects and styles for both domestic and Western consumption and Western interest in applying Burmese artistic traditions in new ways.