13 October 2016
Globalization – the term describing free trade, cultural integration, vanishing borders and accessible communication throughout the world – is surprisingly modern. Coined in 1983 by Theodore Levitt, a marketing professor at the Harvard Business School, it considers the exponential influence of advancements in technology and the expansion of the internet. It’s hard to belie...
07 October 2016
Our earliest ancestors lived much like wild beasts, scavenging and hunting when they were hungry. They also walked for miles in search of food and water and then left when either ran out. Revolutionary changes in human behavior came about when bright souls across the world realized settled life was possible through farming and domesticating animals. They also realized pottery vessels could...
29 September 2016
They called him The Digger, Diggy for short. It was an apt nickname considering his peculiar hobby – digging. As a child he dug countless craters in his parent’s garden and didn’t stop until he had pock-marked the lawns of all his relatives. As an adult, friends couldn’t invite him to their homes lest he sneak into their backyards, regardless of the season, with a ti...
23 September 2016
The U.S. presidential election is heading toward a finale and two faces are on newspapers and television screens all over the world. Will Donald Trump become the most unconventional and unpredictable U.S. president the world has ever known? Or will Hillary Clinton make history as the first woman President of the United States? The concept of men exclusively holding positions of power has r...
19 August 2016
Sometimes, a blank canvas can be utterly intimidating to an artist. In response to viewing this void another void is created, and in it nothing may come to mind, the hand freezes, and time seems to stop. Calligrapher Seiran Chiba had this experience when her calligraphy master passed away and she was left for the first time with no guiding figure. For days she sat in front of a blank sheet...
05 August 2016
In 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt and though the military campaign ultimately ended in failure, his occupation proved to be an influential turning point in art. It created a genre that would eventually become known as Orientalism. European presence encouraged scholars and artists to visit Egypt, North Africa and eventually the Middle East to study and document different cultures, environment...
03 August 2016
In the late 1980s when videocassette recorders (VCRs) started making their way into Ghana, a small cottage industry developed called the ‘mobile cinema.’ The industry was composed of entrepreneurs who were armed with three tools – a TV, VCR and a gas powered portable generator. In the evening they would travel to remote villages or set up an itinerant theater in underserv...
15 July 2016
In the early 1900s, a couple embarked from their home in London to travel south into the heart of Africa. Their friends and relatives called them crazy and eccentric, even deranged, but they always had pity and sympathy in their voices. It was understandable. The couple had just suffered the tremendous loss of twins during child birth. Laura, the mother, had barely survived; and even after...
08 July 2016
Hong Kong, July 1, 1997. The usual bustle of the island city was noticeably subdued, replaced by an almost tangible sense of excitement and nervousness as the citizens stood on the threshold of an historic event. The monsoon rains that swelled from drizzles to downpours could not keep the curious off the streets where enthusiastic supporters as well as wary protestors gathered together. Ve...
01 July 2016
Will you marry me? For some people it’s the biggest question they will ever ask; for others, it’s a question to be repeated multiple times during their lives. Yet, no matter how many times it is asked, this proposal is almost always accompanied by a ring. The tradition of giving and receiving rings has had fashionable, spiritual, and romantic significance for thousands of years...