Deborah Stokes is a specialist in Yoruba art of Nigeria where she has done field research on the style analysis of hundreds of traditional Yoruba carvers using the twin figure (ere ibeji) as the key resulting in a photographic index by area, town, compound, and generation.  (See Publications) Over the past decade at the Smithsonian, she has been engaged in the development of multidisciplinary, cross-unit  educational programming for K-12 both in the museum and in the classroom.  She has authored many gallery guides integrating the arts across multiple disciplines for a series of exhibitions including: Artful Animals (2009-10), African Cosmos: Stellar Arts (2011-12), and Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa (2013-14).   Her work with D.C. area schools includes art workshops, a literacy skills program, lesson plans and activities for multi-disciplinary arts integration.  Deborah has also worked to facilitate the convergence of museums as a platform for social justice and engagement as well as the links between art and its ability to foster compassion, connection, and community.  She has been a Field Grant Reviewer for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) , a Reviewer and Panelist for the Smithsonian Scholarly Studies Grant proposals, and a member of the Steering Committee for the Smithsonian Material Culture Forum.  She served a three-year term on the Review Board, Journal of the National Art Education Association, and on the Advisory Board of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) and as Newsletter Editor.  (ACASAonline.org). Beyond Nigeria, her research has taken her to South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana.  She is currently working on a catalogue raisonne of Areogun, the Nigerian master carver.  

Positions

• Curator for Education, National Museum of African Art 2008 -

Geographic Focus

• Africa  Continent