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For many years African art has been thriving throughout Africa. Works can be characterized by bright colors, intricate sculptures made of magnificent and rare materials, and reflect the styles of various cultures throughout the continent. These works were present even long before anyone had started recording accounts of writing, art, or aspects related to a particular culture. What I hope to do with this project is to learn more about the actual recorded data. There are many questions I hope to answer a few of them being the following:

How did they create these pieces? (What were the materials)
Who was creating the pieces? (Was it only the elite or did the average person create works of art)
Was it traded among the different people in the towns and cities?
How was it viewed then? How is it viewed now?
What was the motivation to start creating this art (was it suffering, was it something they saw when captured by Europeans, was it a means of documenting history)
Who are the people who were standout artists of that time? Are there any standout artists?
From what regions do most of the documented art come from?
Who are the main collectors of that art in contemporary times?
How does this art play a role in shaping the art world today? Essentially, does it have a significant contribution and if so what is it?

Here are a few links I hope to start with answering the questions:

Helpful links:

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa39

http://curatorseye.com/collection.php

http://arthistoryresources.net/ARTHafrica.html

http://www.galleryofwestindianart.com/

http://www.medalia.net/ahistory.html

http://www.africa.si.edu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEGp7-2a7lc

Hopefully with these questions answered I can create a page will resemble this structure:

I. Introduction of African Art History

II. Cultural significance when it was originally created and cultural significance today