The New Guinea Sculpture Garden:
Happenings & Events at the Garden

The artists hope this extended on-location carving will allow for significant personal interaction and discussion with the Bay Area audience. We will encourage this interaction through events at the site.

• Friday Barbecue: every friday from 5 to 9.
• Daily guided site tours and discussions with the artists. Two Papua New Guinean translators will be available to assist in these discussions and answer questions. The site will be open to the public Monday through Friday from 2PM - 5PM.
• "Story-time" with the artists telling various myths related to their works using the two translators from Papua New Guinea.
• Musical performances at the site.
• A weekly public lecture series providing ethnographic information on the arts and cultures of Papua New Guinea as well as considering such issues as:
  • Tradition and change in contemporary New Guinea art.
  • The construction and uses of "primitivism" in the west.
  • Authenticity/inauthenticity, art/artifact, and other western interpretative categories for non-western arts.
  • The role of art in contemporary Papua New Guinea for the negotiation of personal, cultural, and national identity.
• Peninsula and San Francisco children will have similar opportunities to interact with the artists through an extensive outreach program organized by Learning Through Education in the Arts Project (LEAP) and the Arts Education Program at San Francisco State. These outreach programs will serve a wide diversity of K-8 classrooms and youth groups while focusing on Bay Area Pacific Islander communities.

  Outreach activities include:

  • An introductory presentation/discussion on New Guinea art and culture in the home classroom using slides, art objects, and written materials.
    
  • A class field-trip to the site at Stanford University to watch the carving process and discuss the works in-progress with the artists.
    
  • Hands-on Sepik bark painting classes using traditional Sepik painting materials. (sago palm bark panels, ground/dye paint, and betel nut brushes)
  Schools or youth groups that would like to participate should call LEAP at (415) 861-1899.