Public humanities: africa & byzantium [the metropolitan museum of art (met) respectfully requests a $400,000 implementation grant from the NEH to support the traveling exhibition africa & byzantium,…

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was awarded a $400,000 project grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities under the Promotion of the Humanities Public Programs program (CFDA 45.164) to support the traveling exhibition Africa & Byzantium from May 1, 2023 through August 31, 2024. The grant will enable the Museum to organize the exhibition in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art, challenging common preconceptions about the arts of Africa and Byzantium through educational programs, interdisciplinary interpretation, and digital and print materials. The exhibition and related public humanities work will expand understanding of Byzantium's global influence and the importance of North and East Africa's cultural heritage to world history.

Public humanities: africa & byzantium [the metropolitan museum of art (met) respectfully requests a $400,000 implementation grant from the NEH to support the traveling exhibition africa & byzantium, organized in collaboration with the cleveland museum of art (CMA). Building upon a line of met exhibitions related to byzantium, africa & byzantium will foreground the critical role played by early african christianity, its heritage, traditions, and history in the byzantine world while challenging common preconceptions about the arts of both africa and byzantium. Through educational programs, interdisciplinary interpretative strategies, accessible digital materials, and a scholarly catalogue, the project will expand public understanding of byzantium, its reach, and its transcultural authority. The exhibition will make accessible complex humanistic themes and ideas related to african identity, and will foreground the importance of the north and east africa?s cultural heritage to the development of world history.]