James E Lewis Museum Research Paper

Response paper #1 Recently I took a tour of the James E. Lewis Museum of art located in Baltimore, MD. This museum is a part of Morgan State University fine arts building. As I walked into the museum I notice the beautiful entrance that consist of sculptures of very important people in history. In addition I was amazed by the infrastructure of the museum and the setup of the lighting in the museum. Furthermore, the transition in the height of the walls inside of the museum were very appalling. As I walked around the mesuem I notice that the paintings were not hanging up on the wall. Instead these paintings were placed on the floor leaning on the wall in a diagonal motion. Furthermore, in this museum there were a lot of African artifacts, sculptures, and mask from different parts of Africa. Also, there were brief information that went along with some of the African masks and sculptures.
In the mesuem there was a painting of a black women placed

These mask reminded me of different rituals that is practiced in the Haitian culture. However, I believe that these mask were used in Africa for very specific rituals to contact certain Gods for different personal reasons. In addition there was an African sculpture of a woman with a fabricated wig. Once of seen this sculpture I envision all of the less fortunate women in Africa that have to struggle day in day out to make ends meet. This sculpture is very powerful because it reminds people of the struggle that women had and still have today.
Then I notice the final piece of art in this museum which was a big box painted with African symbols. This box made me think of Pandora’s Box but this box is open. According to the Pandora’s Box legend an individual is not supposed to open the box unless they want to deal with their inner deep desires. Ironically, inside off this box there were letterers and envelopes of what could consist of people’s personal