Sylvia Williams

{{Infobox person

| name = Sylvia Williams

| image = Sylvia H. Williams, director of the National Museum of African Art (NMAfA).jpg

| alt = Sylvia H. Williams

| caption = Williams stands in front of two objects from the collection of the National Museum of African Art

| birth_name = Sylvia Louise Hill

| birth_date = {{birth date|1936|02|10}}

| birth_place = Lincoln, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1996|02|28|1936|02|10}}

| death_place = Washington, DC, U.S.

| nationality =

| other_names =

| alma mater = Oberlin College, New York University Institute of Fine Arts

| occupation = Museum director, curator, art historian, and scholar of African art

| years_active =

| known_for =

| notable_works =

| spouse = Charlton Williams

}}

Sylvia H. Williams (née Sylvia Louise Hill; February 10, 1936 – February 28, 1996), was an American museum director, curator, art historian, and scholar of African art. She helped develop the study and appreciation of African art as a significant aesthetic and intellectual pursuit in the United States.

Life and work

Williams was born and grew up in Lincoln, Pennsylvania. Her father was a professor of English and dean at Lincoln University. She married Charlton Williams, and the couple never had children. Williams held art history degrees from Oberlin College in 1957 and New York University's Institute of Fine Arts in 1975. Williams served as a curator in the Department of African, Oceanic and New World Cultures at the Brooklyn Museum in 1973.{{Cite web|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/29/nyregion/sylvia-williams-60-museum-director.html|title = Obituaries Section: Sylvia Williams, 60, Museum Director|date = February 29, 1996|access-date = May 24, 2014|work = The New York Times|last = |first = }}{{Cite web|url=http://arthistorians.info/williamss|title=Sylvia H. Williams|website=Dictionary of Art Historians|access-date=May 23, 2014}}

In February 1983, Williams joined the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution and in 1987 oversaw the move of the museum to its current location at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. During her time at this museum, she was dedicated to elevating the museum's reputation, whereby she helped the museum acquire more than 845 works of both traditional and modern African art for exhibition, including sculpture, photography, and textiles. She emphasized the importance of connoisseurship in the appreciation and display of African art.{{Cite web|url = http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_8850|title = Sylvia H. Williams|date = March 1983|access-date = May 24, 2014|website = Smithsonian Institution Archives|publisher = |last = |first = }}

In 1983, Williams received a Candace Award for History from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women.{{cite web |website=National Coalition of 100 Black Women |title=CANDACE AWARD RECIPIENTS 1982-1990, Page 3 |url=http://www.ncbw.org/programs/award3.html |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20030314213306/http://www.ncbw.org/programs/award3.html |archivedate=March 14, 2003 }} In 1989, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Amherst College, and the following year (1990), she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts by Oberlin College.{{Cite web|url = http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/oampast/oam_sum96/oamsum96_williams.html|title = Memorial Minute, Sylvia Hill Williams class of '57, '90 honorary trustee|date = March 9, 1996|access-date = May 24, 2014|website = Oberlin Alumni Magazine (OAM)|publisher = Oberlin College|last = Perlik|first = William}}{{Cite web|url = http://www.oberlin.edu/archive/holdings/finding/RG30/SG359/biography.html|title = Sylvia H. Williams (1936-1996) Biography and Administrative History of Oberlin|date = |access-date = May 24, 2014|website = Oberlin College Archives|publisher = Oberlin College|last = |first = }}

She served as president of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) from 1994 to 1995.

She died in Washington, D.C., at age 60 from complications with a brain aneurysm. In October 1997, the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution launched the exhibition The Poetics of the Line: Seven Artists of the Nsukka group, which was also the inaugural exhibition of the Sylvia H. Williams Gallery named in her honor.{{cite journal|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/422546/summary|title=The Sensitive Line: seven artists of the nsukka group|journal=Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art|date=1998|first=Chika |last=Okeke|volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=54–58 |doi=10.1215/10757163-8-1-54 |access-date=5 January 2019}}

Exhibitions

1973: African Art of the Dogon
1976: Black South Africa, Contemporary Graphics
1981: African Furniture and Household Objects
1981: Art of the Archaic Indonesians
1989: Icons, Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa
1991: The Art of the Personal Object (aesthetic value of utilitarian objects in African cultures)
1993: Astonishment and Power: the Eyes of Understanding Kongo Minkisi