The Elizabeth Taber Library presents Arts of the Pacific with Katherine Higgins on Thursday, March 19 at 6:30 pm.
After another New England winter, it’s time to start thinking about warmer weather. Join us for a presentation and conversation about art in the Pacific Islands. Katherine Higgins will discuss a range of customary and contemporary art by indigenous artists in the Pacific Islands. The beauty and diversity of the Pacific Islands has inspired artworks that embody and reflect the unique cultures, histories, and environments across the Islands. Katherine will provide a brief introduction to the extraordinary diversity across the region which includes 25,000 islands and 1/4 of the world’s languages, and then we’ll do some island-hopping to discover artistic practices such as recording genealogy through tattoo and fiber arts, production of stone and feather currency, and contemporary paintings and performance that confront colonization and nuclear testing or celebrate enduring cultural traditions. The second half of the presentation will be for questions from the audience – whether about particular islands or artistic practices. We will also have the opportunity to discuss how our modern, globalized world has transformed Islander’s perceptions of some of these art works.
Katherine Higgins is an art historian, educator, curator, and occasional artist who specializes in contemporary indigenous arts. She earned a PhD in art history from the University of Auckland and graduated with a Masters in Pacific Islands studies and a graduate certificate in museum studies from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Katherine’s research focuses on contemporary art and artistic and cultural exchange. She has worked with artists and arts organizations in Oceania, primarily in Hawai‘i, Fiji, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Sāmoa, and the Cook Islands. She has also worked in higher education, community outreach, grant writing, museum education, museum and exhibition design, and for grassroots and international art organizations in Boston, London, Honolulu, Suva, Christchurch, Auckland, and Poutasi, Sāmoa.
Katherine currently serves as Arts Editor for the academic journal The Contemporary Pacific published by University of Hawaii’s Press and as a trustee for TransCultural Exchange.