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Episode 150 – Curator of African Art, Dr. Amanda M. Maples (USA + Germany)
Episode recording
Recorded February 7, 2021
Published February 25, 2021
Transcript of Episode 150 - Curator of African Art, Dr. Amanda M. Maples (USA + Germany)
MATT: Could you please pronounce your name correctly for me
AMANDA: Amanda Marie Maples
MATT: Now you're a doctor, correct. So you're actually Dr. Amanda Maples.
AMANDA: Yes, indeed. Yeah, and they they care about that here in Germany. I haven't used it so much as I have in last year here where a few months I guess. guess.
MATT: Oh, yeah. Titles are very important in Europe for sure like manager is one that I've noticed MGR is very popular here. Your background so you know, how did you you are a curator of African art as your primary interest, correct?
AMANDA: That's right. Yes. Okay. So what was your childhood like that led you up to the path of becoming even a curator much less a curator of something as specific as African art
AMANDA: right? I get that question a lot and I even wonder how I ended up here. So I grew up in rural North Carolina in the Eastern side of it and I didn't know anything about Africa let alone anthropology or even art historyI am from a fairly for poor county in North Carolina. So the education wasn't super strong so I didn't really know much of what was out there until I got to college and that's when I first started taking anthropology. I will say when I was a kid. I was in the in the gifted program. So I got bussed over to an elementary school a couple of times a week where I got to really explore some of my own interests and that was a really Amazing experience. So it's a such a young age. It's funny that the entire school system only had one school for all of us. Like we would all come in from different schools into this one program. But at that time I was was really interested in archaeology. Like, I wanted to be a paleontologist specifically that's what I interested in and I don't think I got too far off the mark I ended up going towards archaeology in college and then I went to South Africa to get my field School in archaeology that was in 2001 to date myself a little bit. I think that's when I started gravitating towards the continent and learning much more about a history that has been obscured from our educational system for so many reasons and in so many ways including that of the diaspora. So yeah, I wanted to be a paleontologist than I would be an archaeologist that I ended up working with art. So it's not too far away though because objects are so Central to museum practice and to archaeology obviously. So for me one of the most amazing things that happened when I was in South Africa doing that dig . It was a Middle Stone Age site was touching an object that had not been touched by any other human for a thousand years and that just blew my mind. So, you know being able to connect to one object like that tangibly to tell you a story or to site your interest that to me was really powerful and I think that's when I started gravitating even more towards museums and I just sort of ended up in African art we can talk a bit more about that. But I guess that's my more early experience and how I kind of I meandered towards African art if you will.
MATT: Well, I meandered when I was young as well. I studied with a Cherokee Shaman at one point. I did an archaeological dig out in the Anasazi area and I went to University of Iowa with the intention of being a Native American Studies major and then I got there and they said oh, yeah, we're just starting that program. It'll take another like four to six years before you can get a degree and I'm like fuck. But I I was as interested in Psychology and Native American studies and all the other stuff like ...
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By Fifty14Episode recording
Recorded February 7, 2021
Published February 25, 2021
Transcript of Episode 150 - Curator of African Art, Dr. Amanda M. Maples (USA + Germany)
MATT: Could you please pronounce your name correctly for me
AMANDA: Amanda Marie Maples
MATT: Now you're a doctor, correct. So you're actually Dr. Amanda Maples.
AMANDA: Yes, indeed. Yeah, and they they care about that here in Germany. I haven't used it so much as I have in last year here where a few months I guess. guess.
MATT: Oh, yeah. Titles are very important in Europe for sure like manager is one that I've noticed MGR is very popular here. Your background so you know, how did you you are a curator of African art as your primary interest, correct?
AMANDA: That's right. Yes. Okay. So what was your childhood like that led you up to the path of becoming even a curator much less a curator of something as specific as African art
AMANDA: right? I get that question a lot and I even wonder how I ended up here. So I grew up in rural North Carolina in the Eastern side of it and I didn't know anything about Africa let alone anthropology or even art historyI am from a fairly for poor county in North Carolina. So the education wasn't super strong so I didn't really know much of what was out there until I got to college and that's when I first started taking anthropology. I will say when I was a kid. I was in the in the gifted program. So I got bussed over to an elementary school a couple of times a week where I got to really explore some of my own interests and that was a really Amazing experience. So it's a such a young age. It's funny that the entire school system only had one school for all of us. Like we would all come in from different schools into this one program. But at that time I was was really interested in archaeology. Like, I wanted to be a paleontologist specifically that's what I interested in and I don't think I got too far off the mark I ended up going towards archaeology in college and then I went to South Africa to get my field School in archaeology that was in 2001 to date myself a little bit. I think that's when I started gravitating towards the continent and learning much more about a history that has been obscured from our educational system for so many reasons and in so many ways including that of the diaspora. So yeah, I wanted to be a paleontologist than I would be an archaeologist that I ended up working with art. So it's not too far away though because objects are so Central to museum practice and to archaeology obviously. So for me one of the most amazing things that happened when I was in South Africa doing that dig . It was a Middle Stone Age site was touching an object that had not been touched by any other human for a thousand years and that just blew my mind. So, you know being able to connect to one object like that tangibly to tell you a story or to site your interest that to me was really powerful and I think that's when I started gravitating even more towards museums and I just sort of ended up in African art we can talk a bit more about that. But I guess that's my more early experience and how I kind of I meandered towards African art if you will.
MATT: Well, I meandered when I was young as well. I studied with a Cherokee Shaman at one point. I did an archaeological dig out in the Anasazi area and I went to University of Iowa with the intention of being a Native American Studies major and then I got there and they said oh, yeah, we're just starting that program. It'll take another like four to six years before you can get a degree and I'm like fuck. But I I was as interested in Psychology and Native American studies and all the other stuff like ...