The Fowler is thrilled to announce the launch of its Online Collections Portal—a growing public database highlighting works in the museum’s care. Join Mellon Collections Information Coordinator Kate Anderson and Mellon Curatorial and Research Associate Carlee S. Forbes to learn how to dive deep into the Fowler holdings.

Kate Anderson is the Mellon Collections Information Coordinator at the Fowler, where she has worked to make the Fowler’s internal database accessible to the wider public. She received her Master’s degree in history and museum studies from Tufts University; and has previously worked at the Autry Museum of the American West and the Adamson House Museum.

Carlee S. Forbes is the Mellon Curatorial and Research Associate at the Fowler, where she studies African objects donated to the museum by the Wellcome Trust in 1965. Forbes received her Ph.D. in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has worked with the Ackland Art Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. Her research focuses on art produced during the colonial period in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, museum and collecting histories, and issues of provenance. 

Image: Unidentified artist(s) (Yoruba style, Republic of Benin), Ijoko (stool), before 1919; wood, pigment; Fowler Museum at UCLA, X65.395; Gift of the Wellcome Trust (left). Unidentified potter (Igbo style, Nigeria), jar, before 1932; ceramic, pigment; Fowler Museum at UCLA, X65.7990; Gift of the Wellcome Trust (center). Unidentified artist (Igbo style, Nigeria), Ikenga, before 1932; wood, pigment; Fowler Museum at UCLA, X65.3809; Gift of the Wellcome Trust (right).