Marilyn Houlberg

Marilyn Houlberg (died June 30, 2012) was a leading expert on the arts and culture of Haitian Vodou. She was Professor Emeritus of Liberal Arts and Professor Emeritus of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, having taught there since 1974.^[1]

Education

Houlberg entered college at the University of Chicago, earning her BFA in 1963, and her MAT in 1967. She then went to University College London, earning her M.A. in 1973.^[1]

Exhibitions

Houlberg began traveling to Haiti in the 1960s. Her work in Haiti has formed the basis for a number of influential exhibitions and publications. Her exhibitions include the groundbreaking traveling exhibition "Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou" in 1995;^[2] "Creative Inspiration: The Arts of Haitian Vodou" at the Musee d'Art Haitien du College Saint Pierre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1999; and the traveling exhibition "Haiti: Vodou Visionaries" which opened in Port-au-Prince and traveled to Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago, Illinois.^[3]

In addition to her exhibition work on Haiti, The Marilyn Houlberg Photographic Archive documents cultural aspects of post-Independence Nigeria during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. This archive is currently being catalogued for the Elisofon Library, National Museum of African Art, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.^[4]

Publications

• "Ibeji Images of the Yoruba", African Arts, Vol. 7 (1973)
• "Haitian Studio Photography: A Hidden World of Images". In Rebeecca Busselle, ed., Haiti: Feeding the Spirit (1992)
• (Introduction) Stephen Marc, The black trans-Atlantic experience: street life and culture in England, Ghana, Jamaica, and the United States (1992)
• Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou (exhibition catalog, 1998)
• (Introduction) Phyllis Galembo, Vodou: Visions and Voices of Haiti (2005)

Houlberg also contributed several articles to periodicals such as African Arts and The New Observations Magazine.

References