A Ford Foundation grant of $195,000 to Cornell University's Africana Studies and Research Center will support the second phase of "Africa in Venice," a project under the direction of Professor Salah Hassan, chair of Cornell's Department of History of Art. The grant will be used to support outreach activities generated from the unprecedented success of African artists in the 49th Venice Biennale (2001), as well as to support preparations for African artists in the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003.

The 2001 exhibition -- capstone of phase one of the project -- was funded in large part by a Ford Foundation grant of $300,000; Ford originally began funding the project in 1999. Titled "Authentic/Ex-centric: Africa In and Out of Africa," phase one included publication of a scholarly companion book Authentic/Ex-centric: African Conceptualism in Global Contexts, a significant and enduring chronicle of contemporary African artists and their works. "The 2001 exhibition was a great success by all measures," said Hassan, associate professor of African diaspora art history and visual culture as well as co-curator for the 49th and 50th exhibitions. "As the first African-led initiative of its kind in the 100 year history of the Venice Biennale, the exhibition fully achieved its goals and much more."

One of the most prestigious international exhibits held anywhere, the Venice Biennale is both a bi-yearly competition and a forum for emerging artists from around the world.

With the Ford Foundation's assistance, Hassan said, the 2001 exhibition established a "global presence of African and African diaspora artists," and helped to show Africa, "not just as a geographical entity, but as a historical presence" in the world of art.

For more information about the "Africa in Venice" project, contact Hassan at (607) 255-0528 or e-mail at sh40@cornell.edu .