American exhibitions that showcase African art often exhibit work that is housed in the collections of American or Western institutions. It is still somewhat rare for American institutions to borrow loans directly from African museums and cultural sites. 

In 2019, The Block presented the groundbreaking Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa, an exhibition that showcased more than 250 artworks, including many borrowed from colleague institutions in Mali, Morocco, and Nigeria.

These important international loans were facilitated by Block Museum Assistant Director of Collections and Exhibition Management and Senior Registrar Kristina Bottomley, who spoke about the project at the 2023 Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists (ARCS) conference.

On a panel titled “Bridging Continents: Loans, Collaboration, and Partnership with Museums and Institutions in Africa” Bottomley addressed The Block Museum’s work in rethinking museum lending and borrowing best practices internationally and its commitment to building reciprocal international partnerships.

“I was honored to present our on work with this exhibition and share how we formed these valuable relationships,” Bottomley said. 

The ARCS conference, which runs biannually, invited museum professionals in registrarial and collections work to Montreal from November 7-10, 2023 for networking and educational sessions. On the “Bridging Continents” panel, Bottomley appeared alongside museum industry peers from LP Art, the Harry Ransom Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Huntington T. Block Fine Arts Insurance.

“I think one of the key points that we were each trying to emphasize was resources are different in every country, and at each institution,” Bottomley said. “We must recognize and respect that things work differently in every country. How can you be flexible, build a collaborative partnership with your lenders, and understand and adjust to the differences in their best practices?”  

In addition to forging relationships with partner institutions in Africa, Bottomley’s work as part of Caravans of Gold also involved the logistical work of navigating international regulations of transporting work from multiple countries to The Block. 

“The significance of what Kristina helped us to achieve was learning how to navigate all the networks, all the relationship building, all of the payments, all of the translations of the legal forms, and also to understand the timelines that this work would take,” said Block Museum Associate Director of Collections and Exhibition Management Dan Silverstein.  

Bottomley’s efforts not only established significant relationships vital to bringing Caravans of Gold to fruition, but have also been recognized industry-wide as part of ongoing work to establish best practices for fostering international processes that connect institutions globally. Those practices are also important to The Block’s standing amongst its peers, both nationally and internationally, and the creation of relationships forged through this work enables continued access to loaned works.  

“It speaks to how Kristina kind of elevated The Block’s status within the field,” Silverstein said. “There wasn’t a playbook you could go to, but now Kristina’s presentation with her colleagues helped establish the start of a system for anybody to pick up and have the first steps.”