ARTBRIDGE OUTREACH

"TRAVEL TO AFRICA"
Pre-Visit Information

Workshop Summary

Cradle your head on an African headrest, hold a hand-carved African sculpture, or try on a piece of African jewelry. These and other objects, such as baskets, fabric, and shells illustrate how African people; make, use and depend on the objects they create. These objects reflect a time in Africa when people were strongly influenced by Africa’s natural resources and driven by the need for
self sufficiency and necessity.

The art works and objects in this educational collection were donated by the late John and Katheryne Loughran. Given to the Lighthouse Center for the Arts (LCA) in 2006, the Loughran Collection of African Art was gifted with the expressed wishes that it be used for educational purposes. Having established the Foundation for Cross Cultural Understanding in Washington, DC, the Loughrans collected African works of art, poetry and cultural objects to foster greater cultural awareness. In addition to the LCA Educational Collection, Foundation gifts were also made to other institutions in the U.S., including the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African Art, the Samuel P. Harn Museum at the University of Florida and the Indiana Museum of Art.

This program presents a selection of paintings and drawings by Katheryne Loughran and everyday objects from our collection including textiles, wood carvings and jewelry. The collection represents pieces originating in African nations including The Gambia, Somalia, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Aden, Yemen, Senegal as well as from nomadic tribes such as the Dogon, Maasai, Ashanti and Yoruba. The Loughrans did not restrict themselves to merely collecting, though. They also helped the indigenous people with whom they lived to produce some of these wares. In 1970, John, who was then the American Charge d’Affaires to The Gambia, and his wife Katheryne helped to establish the first cooperative in The Gambia, enabling women to sell their beautiful batik fabrics to raise money for the people of their small villages. This cooperative is called the Craftsmen’s Village and still thrives today, creating 1000 pounds of fabric annually. In all, the Loughrans spent over twelve years in Africa during which John Loughran served as United States Ambassador to Somalia from 1975-1978.

The LCA Educational Collection also holds art works created by Katheryne Loughran during their African tenure. Katheryne’s subjects include Somalis, Kenyans, Gambians, Senegalese and several Black American residents of Mogadiscio. Art was a spiritual journey for her. Before working on each portrait, she prayed to the Holy Spirit to come through her and onto the canvas. The result is these paintings of unusual beauty and perspective. Creating artworks across three continents, Katheryne, a graduate of the Museum School of Art in Philadelphia, painted not only in Africa but in Europe with subjects as notable as Pope Paul VI and statesmen in West Germany, among others. Her portraits have been shown at the Musée des Beaux Art de la Ville de Paris and are in private collections globally. Katheryne worked as art editor of Somalia in Word and Language, a 1983 publication of the Indiana University Press. She was noted as a talented illustrator and teacher. The paintings and sketchbook in this exhibition were first exhibited in 1978 in the African cities of Nairobi and Mogadiscio.

The Lighthouse Center for the Arts was honored to have her as one of our instructors. Katheryne passed away in October, 2005. John Loughran passed away the following summer in Africa with family at his side. This program is dedicated to their memory and the spirit of Katheryne’s art.

The Notebook

While in Africa, Katheryne Loughran began working to capture and record African history. Her notebook drawings are a chronicle of life in East and West Africa, a life which had gone unchanged for centuries. Her notebook includes illustrations and paintings that document religious ceremonies, daily life, native dress, indigenous plant life, the natural resources and the people and artifacts of Africa. Whether it was the women who collected seashells for money, the man who moved trees, or the Somalis who trusted her enough to allow her to paint them from afar, she recorded their stories. The Notebook was first presented to the Lighthouse Center for the Arts in 1978 while the Loughrans were posted at Mogadiscio in Somalia.

Scheduling Tours and Workshops

• Please allow one month to schedule your request.
• The day and time is by arrangement.
• Tours are approximately 30-45 minutes long. Tours combined with workshops are approximately 1 ½ - 2 hours long.
• The cost is $1.00 per student for guided tours. Tours combined with a workshop are $6.00 per student.

*Fees include professional instruction and all art materials. Participants can work in watercolor and acrylic paint, collage, printmaking, pencil, colored pencil, charcoal, oil and chalk pastel and clay. All clay projects require two sessions.

To schedule a visit to the Lighthouse Center for the Arts or arrange for a visit at your site please contact 561-746-3101 or info@lighthousearts.org