MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- This fall, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts presents “Visions from the Forests: The Art of Liberia and Sierra Leone,” the nation’s first exhibition dedicated to the cultural heritage of West African neighbors Liberia and Sierra Leone. Featuring approximately 75 pieces drawn primarily from the collection of William Siegmann (1943–2011), a Minneapolis native and former curator of African art at the Brooklyn Museum, the exhibition surveys the region’s traditional and diverse art forms such as masks, wooden and stone statuary, metalwork, ritual objects used in men’s and women’s initiation rites, and woven and dyed textiles. Organized by the MIA, “Visions from the Forests” is on view September 20, 2014, through February 8, 2015.

“Visions from the Forests” honors Siegmann’s connoisseurship and generosity, which created one of the country’s most distinguished public collections of Liberian and Sierra Leonean art. Before his death in 2011, Siegmann began donating portions of his collections to various museums, with the majority given to the MIA. His gift covers a period from the 15th to the late 20th centuries and includes works by artists from over a dozen ethnic groups.

“As the MIA’s curator of African art, I owe a great debt to my colleague William Siegmann,” said Jan- Lodewijk Grootaers, PhD, curator of African Art and head of the MIA’s Department of Arts of Africa and the Americas. “His deeply personal connections in West Africa and his dedication to documentation and attribution ushered in a new chapter in our understanding of African art. This exhibition is not only groundbreaking as the first survey of art from this region, but for its focus on individual makers in Liberia and Sierra Leone.”

“Visions from the Forests” surveys the long history of artistic production and inventiveness that characterizes the Upper Guinea Forest region of West Africa. Exhibition highlights include:

• Masterfully carved masks, ranging from a face mask with feathers and shoulder cap from the Dan people in Liberia, to a large horizontal mask from the Loma, to a Vai helmet mask from around 1900;

• A rare wooden female figure by the Mende carver Amara (1950s);

• A brass tortoise from the mid-20th century cast by Kran caster John Leh;

• A unique 15th or 16th-century Sapi stone sculpture representing a seated couple;

• Two snuff horns from around 1900, adorned with silver, in which inscriptions in Arabic and Vai have been written;

• A late-18th-century side-blown ivory horn from the Kim;

• A Temne chiefly hat in silver, modeled after a fez (early 20th century);

• A late-20th-century tie-dyed wrapper designed by contemporary artist Christiana Tombe.

The countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone belong to the Upper Guinea Forest region, a zone of dense tropical rainforest. The forest is a major source of inspiration for the aesthetic motifs represented in these objects. In Dan society, forest-dwelling spirits visit dreamers and request physical manifestation in the form of masks. Among Loma and Mende peoples, masks explicitly or implicitly refer to the forest’s animal world through their forms and materials. For initiates of the Sande, Poro, and Thoma associations, the forest is the place where life-shaping events are experienced; helmet masks and other ritual objects, like silver pendants, help mediate and celebrate those experiences.

“Visions from the Forests” was developed by Jan- Lodewijk Grootaers, curator of African art at the MIA. The exhibition made its debut in April at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C. After the MIA, the exhibition will travel to Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, Indiana (March–May 2015); and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta (July–October 2015).