The Bilum: How Do You Carry Your Things? Exhibition + Webinar

Monday, April 12, 2021
6 pm | Brooks Hall

Exhibition at Brooks Hall, UVA

The bilum is a type of looped net bag that is made, carried, and gifted by people in the Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea. Bilums are used to carry foods, hold sleeping babies, and make the wearer look stylish; American culture has no exact equivalent. An exhibition of bilums is currently on display at Brooks Hall (UVA Grounds across from Bank of America on the Corner), M-F, 9-5. Curated by students in Anthropology Professor Lise Dobrin's spring 2020 course “Curating Culture: Collection, Preservation, and Display as Cultural Forms”, the bilums are presented in the spirit in which they were intended: to carry the story of the people who gave them out into the world.
  

Webinar, April 12, 6:00 PM EST

Join Professor Dobrin and three of her students in this webinar discussion to learn about bilums, and about how the exhibition was planned in spring 2020 and mounted in spring 2021, despite the pandemic.