Vessels of Knowledge: Asmat Art and the Return of Ancestral Voices

September 26, 2026 - May 15, 2027

Anderson Student Center, University of St. Thomas

This exhibition explores how art, archives, and digital repatriation can preserve memory and reconnect cultural knowledge with communities of origin.

University of St. Thomas students played a central role in this work by digitizing collections, creating metadata, and researching archival materials from the Asmat region. In partnership with the Museum Studies program, they gained hands-on experience in ethical museum practice while contributing original scholarship to the field.

This initiative was made possible through a College of Arts and Sciences Elevating the Arts grant and funding from the Department of Art History and Visual Culture.

Image: Shield, Asmat Artist, before 1981, Casuarina Coast, Gift of the Diocese of Agats, AMAA 0109