City of Lakewood Welcomes Exhibit of Headwear fromAround the World
Headdresses,Helmets, Hats: Headwear from Around the World, an extraordinary collection ofunusual and interesting headwear owned by Guest Curator Dr. Beverly Chico, willbe exhibited June 10 through October 5, 2008, in the Radius Gallery atLakewood's Heritage Center, 801 S. Yarrow Street.
Thisexhibition includes over 225 headpieces on loan from the collection of Dr.Chico. The headgear, made from a wide variety of materials, including yak hair, straw, wool,metals, plastics, silks and felts, represents over 100 countries and ethniccultures. These range from tribal communities such as the PhilippineKalinga and Amazon Basin Yanomami, with their reed and animal skull headdresses,to exotic bamboo or silk headwear of nineteenth-century imperial China, andleather plumed helmets of Victorian Europe, to fancy twentieth-century fashiontoppers.
Dr.Chico's interest in collecting headwear developed from her internationaltravels and study of world history. According to Chico: "The head isvital for all human life since it contains the brain, seat of rational powers,four of the five senses, and is the most visible part of the human body.It is only natural that humans have put things on their heads that areimportant to their respective cultures."
Theitems to be displayed, which have been gathered from five continents, have beenorganized into three basic categories.
Headdresses include an elaborate gildedtemple dancer's headpiece from Thailand; a penitente's hood from Seville,Spain; headrings from Rwanda; and a Bedouin woman's head and face veils fromEgypt.
Helmets cover combat styles of several centuries from a seventeenth-century,iron-and-gold-leaf Japanese feudal protector, to a leather and beaverNapoleonic-era shako with its silver crest and plumes, from anineteenth-century admiral's bicorne and Scotch highlander's feather bonnet toa U.S. Naval Academy hat tossed into the air by a 1982 female midshipmangraduate. And other contrasts in
Hats are based on fabrics such as the silk "kite high"dandies, woolen tams or berets, and cotton turbans. The top hat, inventedin Florence, Italy, circa 1750, has a fascinating story. In 1798,haberdasher John Hetherington became the first man to publicly wear a shinysilk plush top hat in England. He was put on trial for breach of thepeace, inciting to riot, and attempting to frighten timid people.
Areception for
Headdresses, Helmets, Hats: Headwear from around the world will be free to the public, onThursday, June 12 from 5 to 7p.m.; in the Radius Gallery at Lakewood's HeritageCenter, 801 S. Yarrow Street.
Therewill also be a lecture,
From Birth to Burial: Ethnic Expressions ofReligious Headwear; (fourteencultures Asia, Middle East and Europe represented by headwear traditionsbrought to the U.S. and worn during life-cycle rituals) on Friday, September26, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased by calling303-987-7850.
Galleryhours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.. For more information anddirections call 303-987-7850. Or visit us online at
www.Lakewood.org.
TheCity of Lakewood's Heritage, Culture and the Arts Division providesexperiential art, history and cultural programming through the LakewoodCultural Center, Lakewood's Heritage Center and the Washington Heights ArtsCenter. The Division isfunded in part by the
Scientific and CulturalFacilities District (SCFD)- Metro Denver's unique commitment to its nonprofit art,scientific and cultural institutions.