The beauty of beadwork at Bowers Museum
The Xhosa and Zulu word for “beauty” is Ubuhle. It is also the right word to describe a new form of bead art, developed by a community of women living in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
“Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence,” a show highlighting that beadwork, is open at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana now through Aug. 27, thanks in part to sponsorship from PNC Bank.
“We partnered with Bowers to help them bring the ‘Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence’ exhibit to the museums because the work that Ubuhle is doing in their community mirrors the work that we are doing in our community,” said Denise Scott, client and community relations director at PNC Bank.
Established in 1999, “Ubuhle” was developed by founder and curator Beverly Gibson with artist Ntombephi “Induna” Ntobela as a way to foster financial independence for rural Xhosa and Zulu woman, using a skill many of them already had. PNC Bank has made a commitment to creating equity in earning by helping close the gender pay gap through Project 257: Accelerating Women’s Financial Equality. The program’s name comes from World Economic Forum’s 2020 report that stated it would take 257 years for men and women to have pay equality. PNC has pledged to use its resources to help to accelerate the closing of the pay gap, by sponsoring shows like “Ubuhle Women.”
“Two hundred and 57 years to get to a point where men and women are equal, financially, just doesn’t make any sense,” said Jarrod Ingle, PNC regional president and head of Corporate Banking for Orange County-Inland Empire. “Leveraging events like this brings visibility to the issue and spreads the word.”
Originally commissioned for the Smithsonian, the Ubuhle artwork uses plain black fabric or cloth (ndwango) stretched over a frame to create a canvas for intricate beadwork pieces that take almost an entire year to complete. Similar to the fabric of Xhosa headscarves and skirts many of the woman grew up wearing, the ndwango comes to life when every inch is covered with colored glass Czech beads to make beautiful designs and scenes.
The exhibit includes a series called “The Bulls,” which depicts multiple Ubuhle artists’ versions of the curly cow, or inkomo egobile, using their own individual styles.
“Ankoli Bull,” by Thando Ntobela, for example, emphasizes the straight and pointed white horns of an Ankole-Watusi in a garden, while “Funky Bull,” by Bongiswa Ntobela, is an animal adorned and surrounded by Mpondo Xhosa symbols and shapes.
“Each woman, given the exact same choice and selection of materials created a piece,” said Gibson, “and you can see how distinctly different they are.”
On July 11, Bowers Museum hosted a panel discussion moderated by Raquel Bone, PNC managing director for Institutional Asset Management, on women and finance with Gibson, Bowers board of governors member Mary Cramer and Debora Wondercheck, founder and chief executive officer of the Arts & Learning Conservatory. The panel was followed by a tour of the exhibit led by Gibson herself.
Bowers has more events planned in conjunction with the exhibit, including a sold-out beading workshop with Gibson and a lecture from Director of Special Exhibition Development Mark Bustamante on July 22.
“We are honored to have the opportunity to showcase the incredible talent of Ubuhle Women,” said Kelly Bishop, vice president of external affairs at the Bowers Museum. “We believe this exhibition will be a highlight of our summer programming.”
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