Reflections of Culture
This exhibit invites visitors to examine how what is worn tells who one is.
Attendees will learn how people around the world communicate information about themselves as they explore various forms of personal adornment, including traditional and contemporary clothing, jewelry, and body art.
Reflections of Culture draws from Fernbank’s permanent collections – featuring the Dorothy Methvin McClatchey Collection – to showcase the fascinating similarities among cultures throughout the world and the different ways of expressing cultural information through the objects created and worn by people.
This exhibit focuses on the most personally expressive of those objects: personal adornment. Individuals globally decorate their bodies with clothing, jewelry, and various forms of body modification, including piercing, scarring, painting, shaping, and tattooing. Personal adornment serves as a means for individuals to express their cultural identity and communicate social, political, and economic information about themselves and their society.
Visitors can discover what culture is and how it is expressed through a variety of contemporary and historic objects. Artifacts are placed alongside captivating photographs, providing context for how the objects are worn, by whom, and why. Additionally, educational offerings throughout the gallery allow attendees to further explore how personal adornment is used to express culture.
