We are very pleased to offer a stunning collection of "cultural adornment" pieces. By "cultural adornment" we mean basically ethnic jewelry. The pieces have been collected by curator Patricia House during her more than 30 years of travel to over 100 countries. The focus of her travels has been to learn about traditional cultural attire, customs and rituals that include personal ornamentation and decoration. The show will highlight pieces by indigenous peoples from Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Most of the pieces are 100-200 years old and will include necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and more. Many are museum-quality.
 
The cultural adornment show will open on October 17 as a special Third Friday event in the Oak Park Arts District. There will be a reception at the gallery for Ms. House from 6-9 pm. We will be giving away an illustrated exhibition catalog, Vanishing Worlds: The Art of Cultural Adornment to the first 50 visitors at the opening reception. The show will continue through December 31.
 
Ms. House will lecture at the Oak Park Public Library on Thursday, October 16, at 7:30 pm in the Veterans Room. In addition, Jerome McDonnell of WorldView, 91.5FM, WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio, will be interviewing her prior to the lecture.
 
Ms. House's interest and work in cultural adornment is currently part of a broader program to help photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher document the rapidly disappearing rituals, celebrations and ceremonies of traditional people in Africa. Many of you may know Beckwith and Fisher's wonderful two-volume book entitled African Ceremonies. Ms. House helped them edit that book and is working with them on a new book entitled Dinka which is a pictorial history of 30 years of the Dinka people in Southern Sudan. The Dinka people are the majority of the traditional people who have been pushed off their lands and are now in the refugee camps in Darfur which we hear so much about in the news.