Royal Museum for Central Africa's director general to visit UF

February 11, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida’s art and research facilities may expand their international connections through a visit from a distinguished European next week.

Guido Gryseels, director general of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, will visit UF Monday through Wednesday and meet with faculty at the Harn Museum of Art, the Florida Museum of Natural History, the UF International Center and the centers for African Studies and for European Studies to tour facilities and discuss joint programming opportunities.

UF International Center Dean David Sammons, a friend of Gryseels, said a relationship with the Royal Museum may allow UF art facilities to exchange materials for exhibits, grant UF scholars access to the Royal Museum’s archives and spark future research collaboration projects among the institutions.

“We have two principal missions; education and research,” said Sammons. “That museum has the same two missions.”

Students and faculty affiliated with UF’s Center for African Studies and Center for European Studies will get some one-on-one time with Gryseels when he gives a presentation about the Royal Museum at the Center for African Studies at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 15 in Room 427 Grinter Hall. All interested individuals are invited to this presentation and discussion.

Gryseels will also give a class presentation to students at the UF School of Art and Art History Feb. 15 about the Royal Museum for Central Africa and the philosophy of museum functions and missions.

The museum, in Tervuren, Belgium, is a world reference center for Africa, focusing on Central Africa, and its staff conducts research in natural and human sciences.

Gryseels has been the director general of the Royal Museum since 2001. He has a doctorate in agricultural economics, and he studied at universities in Belgium, Australia and the Netherlands.