Museum of Art presents major collage exhibition, unique show of shaman objects from Vietnam

A detail from a painted scroll used in shaman rituals of the Yao people of Vietnam.

A detail from a painted scroll used in shaman rituals of the Yao people of Vietnam.

In an exhibition believed to be the most extensive of its kind in the United States, the Bates College Museum of Art presents an extraordinary selection of painted scrolls, masks and other objects used in shamanist ceremonies of five ethnic minorities in northern Vietnam.

How to Make the Universe Right: The Art of the Shaman in Vietnam and Southern China opens at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, with a talk by Trian Nguyen, associate professor of art and visual culture at Bates, in Room 104 of the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St. The exhibition is based on recent research by Nguyen. A reception follows the lecture.

Showing simultaneously with How to Make the Universe Right is Remix: Selections from the International Collage Center, a wide-ranging survey of collages, curated by the International Collage Center and William Low, curator of the Bates Museum of Art.


NOTE TO READERS: The March 12 lecture by ICC founder Pavel Zoubok has been canceled due to a predicted snowstorm.


The exhibitions appear through March 21. The museum and its programs are open to the public at no cost from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and until 7 p.m. Wednesdays while Bates is in session. For more information, please call 207-786-6158.

Untitled (1982), a mixed-media collage by Miriam Shapiro.

An untitled mixed-media collage from 1982 by Miriam Shapiro.


Learn more about How to Make the Universe Right:

Learn more about Remix: