DALLAS, TX.- The Dallas Museum of Art celebrates Black History Month with the Dallas community by offering a variety of programming including gallery talks, lectures and performances in the galleries. The programs are based around the Museum’s large collection of African and Egyptian art; they will also make the connection to the current “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” exhibition and will speak to Egypt’s place within larger African culture.

Join the DMA staff and guest experts for the following special events:

Boshell Family Lecture Series on Archaeology: A God in the Land of Gold: Tutankhamun in Nubia
Dr. Janice Yellin, Professor of Art History, Babson College
Thursday, February 5
7:00 p.m., Theater, Center for Creative Connections, DMA
$15 for the public; discounts available for members, seniors, and students
Reservations required; for tickets call 214-922-1826.

By the time of Tutankhamun’s reign, Nubia was an Egyptian province administered by a Viceroy. Nubia had always been ancient Egypt’s primary source of gold, but beginning with the reign of Amenhotep III —Tut’s grandfather—it offered the Egyptian kings something even more valuable: divinity. Decorations and inscriptions in Nubian temples indicate that in this ancient land pharaohs could be worshiped more fully as living gods than in Egypt. This lecture will explore the Nubian offerings of gold and godhood made to Tutankhamun.

Ancient Egypt and Africa/Egypt in Africa
Saturday, February 28
1:00 p.m., Theater, Center for Creative Connections, DMA
$15 for the public; discounts available for members, seniors, and students
Reservations required; for tickets call 214-922-1826.

Join Vicki Meek, Manager of the South Dallas Cultural Center, and internationally renowned biological anthropologists Dr. Michael Blakey, College of William & Mary, and Dr. Shomarka Keita, Smithsonian Institution, for a thought-provoking discussion on the ancient Egyptians and the newest technology being used to research the civilizations of ancient Africa.

Dr. Michael Blakey is the National Endowment for the Humanities Professor, Department of Anthropology, College of William & Mary.

Dr. Blakey is founding Director of the Institute for Historical Biology at the College of William & Mary. He was Professor of Anthropology and Curator of the W. Montague Cobb Human Skeletal Collection at Howard University and has served as a Research Associate in Physical Anthropology in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Also, Dr. Blakey was the Scientific Director of Howard University’s New York African Burial Ground Project. He is currently a member of the Scholarly Advisory Committee for the new National Museum of African-American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington.

Dr. Shomarka Keita is a Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution.

Dr. Keita is a biological anthropologist and physician who has long been interested in human variation, especially in Africa. He has authored or coauthored publications in a number of peer reviewed science and humanities journals. His research has focused on the areas of craniofacial variation, paleopathology, ancient Egyptian skeletal biology, and the syntheses of biology, linguistics, and archaeology in order to study population history, and the history of ideas about race. Dr. Keita is currently Senior Research Associate at the National Human Genome Center at Howard University and Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution.

In addition to these special events, the Museum’s weekly gallery talks and performance series will investigate and celebrate African and African American culture. Gallery talks are held every Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. The performances in the galleries are held every Saturday at 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. on the Level 3 Landing. Both of these are included in the Museum’s general admission.