- This event has passed.
An Evening with Herbert M. “Skip” Cole
Speaker: Herbert M. “Skip” Cole
Presentation: African Beads are sacred and secular, symbolic and sexy, and used also for money, medicine, clothing and power. African Beads are animal, mineral, vegetable; they are locally made and imported. They concern identity, status, health, and certainly, beauty. This talk will be illustrated by terrific slides of people and their beadwork, and will explore the varied types of beads, their contexts, uses, meanings and aesthetic quality among many African people in different parts of the continent.
Speaker biography: Herbert M. Cole (professor emeritus, U.C.S.B.). known to many as Skip, (BA Williams College 1957, MA and PhD Columbia University, 1964, 1968) taught African art history (plus Oceanic and Native American) from 1968-2003. He also taught briefly at UCLA and the University of Cape Town, in South Africa.
Cole is author, co-author or editor of thirteen books on African arts and 60+ essays and articles. Four years of African field research centered on southeastern Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Cote d’Ivoire. He organized 13 exhibitions of African art at UCLA, UCSB, LACMA, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC. He invited students to collaborate on and write for several of these projects. His most recent book is Maternity: Mothers and Children in African Art, Brussels: Mercatorfonds 2017.
In 2001 Cole received a Leadership Award from the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (professional body for Africanists), for lifetime achievement. Cole continues to publish and has been a consultant to museums and private collectors in the US and abroad. For the past 25 years, as Kofi Cole, he has carved miniature works of African art.
DATE: Tuesday, November 18, 2025, 6:45-8:30pm via zoom Meeting, the meeting will open at 6:45 and the presentation will begin promptly at 7pm.
COST: Free to members; $5.00 for non-members or purchase an annual membership for $25.
Payment for Non-Members ($5.00):
To prepare, please go to https://zoom.us/ and follow the directions to access Zoom®. Sadly, BSNC can not provide tech support.
Please RSVP to judysinclair@beadsocietyofnorcal.org. She will send out the Zoom meeting information prior to each class/speaker event and follow up with a reminder email. Spaces are limited, so please RSVP early.