Jacquelyn Lewis-Harris

The Director of the Center of Human Origin and Cultural Diversity presently holds the title of Lecturer in both Anthropology and the College of Education. Ms. Lewis-Harris has her Master's in Anthropology from Washington University, and is presently completing a doctorate in cultural anthropology. She lived and worked in Liberia, West Africa for over two years, and has traveled in West and North Africa.  In addition, she has traveled extensively in the Pacific with an emphasis on Papua New Guinea. She has a long history of involvement in the visual arts, as both an artist and a consultant. As Assistant Curator of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, she curated several exhibitions at the Saint Louis Art Museum, including Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art, Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series, Visions of the People, Ewe Textiles, Art of Papua New Guinea, Masterpieces of Central Africa, African Textiles, and the reinstallation of the museum's African and Pacific galleries.  For the St. Louis Artists' Guild, she curated St. Louis Collects African Art.  She has presented numerous talks and workshops on the art and culture of Sub-Saharan Africa.  In 1996, she wrote the cover essay Djenne Sculptures, the first time African Sculpture was featured on the cover of the Journal of  American Medical Association.  Recent publications include the St. Louis Art Museum's Winter Bulletin, Art of the Papuan Gulf, numerous articles on art and culture in the Pacific, inclusion in two anthologies on Pacific Art and Culture, and The Great Kings and Queens of Africa.