Milne Bay’s material cultural heritage fascinates many westerners. They refer to this culture and aesthetics as Massim.
To date, there are more than 20,000 Massim artworks and artifacts in storage and on display in museums around the world, including Papua New Guinea.
However, no comprehensive book on Massim art has been published so far.
In a step closer to understanding the brilliant artworks in Milne Bay, Dr Harry Beran will be doing a free lecture on Massim culture this evening.
Dr Beran is a western authority on Massim culture and a frequent visitor to the province.
His educational presentation will describe the main features of Massim art, provide a list of museums which hold significant collections of Massim art, show photographic reproductions of these significant collections illustrating some of the finest Massim artworks in collections from the British Museum, The Queensland Museum and other international collections.
Massim art is distinguished from its neighbors Oro and Central provinces by its curvilinear style. Its most important artworks include ocean-going canoes, shell armbands and necklaces used in the kula-exchange system, Massim lime spatulas which are amongst the finest in PNG and styles developed for the western collectors and tourist markets.
The lecture will hosted by the Massim Museum and Cultural Center in Alotau, Milne Bay.
Beran will be drawing from his prolific knowledge of English, European, American and Australian collections to enhance his talk.
The lecture will be held at 4:30pm.
For more information, check out the Massim Museum and Cultural Center on Facebook.