Celebration: A World of Art and Ritual

On view in a 2-part exhibition are some 600 objects used in celebrations among 62 cultural groups around the world. The exhibition draws from the collections of nine Smithsonian museums.

Part I includes masks and costumes as well as objects related to sound and music, dancing, feasting, games and sports, and rites of passage—birth and initiation, courtship and marriage, death. Among the objects on view are:

• a baseball autographed by the 1952 World Series' Brooklyn Dodgers
• a funerary vase used beside Lincoln's catafalque
• an Apache girl's buckskin puberty cape
• a double-cupped drinking horn from Taiwan
• a pelican bone flute necklace from Panama
• a pressure drum from Nigeria
• an Eskimo grave post from Alaska
• a groom's headdress from India

Part II features shrines, altars, and other religious objects; celebration of harvest and industry.

Guest curator is Victor Turner, Professor of Anthropology, University of Virginia; organized by Renwick Gallery and Smithsonian's Office of Folklife Programs.

Catalogue: Parts I & II

Checklists, Parts I & II

Calendar and posters also available.

Book: Fairs & Festivals, a Smithsonian Guide to Celebrations in Md., Va., and D.C.,

Book by guest curator