“Bridging the Gap” opens at WFU anthropology museum

Oil painting of a man making an offering in Bali.

“Bridging the Gap: Cultural Awareness through Artistic Presentation,” the first exhibit of the 2005-2006 season at Wake Forest University’s Museum of Anthropology, will open Aug. 30 and run through Dec. 17.

In conjunction with the exhibit, curators Mickey Buckwalter and Lorelle Bacon will present a free lecture on Myanmar (Burma) at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 29 in the museum.

“Bridging the Gap,” created by Buckwalter and Bacon, features photographs, paintings and objects from traditional cultures in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. The exhibit includes 20 photographs taken during Buckwalter’s world travels; 4 oil portraits and one graphite drawing by Bacon that were inspired by Buckwalter’s photography; and 31 stone, fabric, wood and metal artifacts Buckwalter collected.

Metal gong from Vietnam.

Buckwalter, who has traveled to more than 32 countries, says her passion for travel and photography began after her first trip to Nepal with the Sierra Club. “Within a year I quit my job, sold my house and left for Southeast Asia with a backpack, camera, guidebook and one-way ticket to Nepal,” says Buckwalter.

The artistic partnership with Bacon began after Buckwalter’s slides and stories of Nepal evoked in Bacon what they call a “powerful dream and prophetic vision.” Bacon then became the driving force in the cooperative venture of fine art, photographic exhibits, slide presentations and storytelling which became “Bridging the Gap.”

For information on “Bridging the Gap,” visit www.bridgingtheculturalgap.com.

The Museum of Anthropology is open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, call (336) 758-5282 or visit www.wfu.edu/anthropology/museum.