Moon Ryan Publishes Special Issue of African Arts Journal

The “African Textiles, Fashionable Textiles” special issue of African Arts journal features new research from nine scholars and shows how the study of African textiles navigates the productive tensions between producers and consumers, commercial and artistic endeavor, and skilled practice and items of fashionability, identity, and investment. Art history professor MacKenzie Moon Ryan edited the volume, penned the introduction, and contributed a scholarly article, “Kanga Cloths at Vlisco: An Object-Based Study of Dutch Printing for the Colonial East African Market, 1876-1971,” based on her extensive research into East African textile design and manufacturing networks.

Since 1967, African Arts journal has offered peer-reviewed scholarly articles and presented original research and critical discourse on traditional, contemporary, and popular African arts and expressive cultures, as well as special thematic issues, book and exhibition reviews, features on museum collections, exhibition previews, artist portfolios, photo essays, contemporary dialogues, and editorials.