DURHAM – Portsmouth photographer Carl Austin Hyatt and anthropologist Hillary S. Webb, Ph.D. will present a discussion on Andean Ceremonial Celebrations at the Museum of Art, Paul Creative Arts Center, University of New Hampshire, on Sat., March 23, beginning at 2:00 p.m. The program is offered in conjunction with the current exhibition, Sacred Landscapes of Peru: The Photographs of Carl Austin Hyatt, and is open to the public free of charge.
Andean Ceremonial Celebrations will focus on the practices of Andean and shamatic ceremonies, rituals, and offerings. The ancient knowledge of how to honor and connect with the spirits of the land and the unseen world are very much alive in Peru, and this program will explore traditional ways of relating to the sacred.
Hyatt has been photographing on the seacoast for more than 25 years. He has bodies of work concentrating on portriature, the figure and the natural world. His experiences with the natural world led him to explore how indigenous cultures see and understand the world. He has investigated indigenous traditions on four continents but has been most drawn to the high Andean traditions of southern Peru. This body of work is the result of more than 20 excursions in Peru since 1998. His work is in major museum collection such as the Currier Museum, The Smithsonian Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and many private collections around the world. He is a 1996 MacDowell Colony Fellow. He teaches indigenous and shamanic principles of energy, awareness and perception internationally. The exhibition, Sacred Landscapes of Peru: The Photographs of Carl Austin Hyatt, will remain on view at the Museum of Art, UNH through March 28.
Hillary S. Webb, PhD., is an anthropologist, author, and former managing editor of Anthropology of Consciousness, the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness. Having received her undergraduate degree in Journalism from New York University, Dr. Webb went on to earn an M.A. degree in Consciousness Studies from Goddard College and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Saybrook University. She is the author of Yanantin and Masintin in the Andean World: Complementary Dualism in Modern Peru, Traveling Between the Worlds, and Exploring Shamanism.
The Museum of Art is located at 30 Academic Way, Durham, and is open during the academic year. Guided group tours for schools and other organizations are available with advance reservation by contacting Catherine A. Mazur, education and publicity coordinator, atcatherine.mazur@unh.edu or 603-862-3713.
