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2/27/2026

Museum Object Exhibition The Weight of Exchange: Metalwork of the Asante Gold Coast Opens March 26

College of Fine Arts
The Weight of Exchange: Metalwork of the Asante Gold Coast
March 26 - April 20, 2026
WJB Gallery

The Department of Art History at Florida State University presents The Weight of Exchange: Metalwork of the Asante Gold Coast. This exhibition opens on March 26 in the WJB Gallery and features pieces of pre-colonial West African metalwork from the Anthropology Collection at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts. Developed by undergraduate students in Dr. Brendan Weaver’s Museum Object course (ARH3854), The Weight of Exchange exhibits 17 copper-alloy goldweights used to weigh gold dust and conduct commerce by the Asante Empire and its antecedents in modern-day Ghana from the 15th century to the beginning of the British protectorate in 1896.

The Asante (Akan) goldweight system existed continuously at the center of economic, sociopolitical, and symbolic and religious exchange. The aim of this exhibition is to review the nuances of exchange as it applies to the peoples of Ghana’s Akanland from the Asante’s early history to their postcolonial legacy through the Asante ethnostate today. These objects, ranging from geometric to representational, reflect the craftsmanship of Akan metalwork that persists in the art and material culture of present-day Ghana.
 
The class will host an opening reception in the WJB Gallery from 4:00 to 6:00 pm on Thursday, March 26. The WJB Gallery is located on the second floor of the William Johnston Building. The Weight of Exchange runs through April 20, 2026, and is free and open to the public.

The Sping 2026 Museum Object class:

Jane Cohen
Austen Culbertson
Reagan Gibson
Riley Givens
Audrey Harlacher
Leasah Jean-Francois

Kaysyn Jones
Further Noumena
Ashley Rehberg
Kira Stevens
Alyson Swindler
Alejandro Valdivia