PERU, Neb. (KOLN) – As Peru State College students walk through campus, they may notice hand embroidered art from Africa.

The artwork is called Mapula, and they are a part of 200 pieces that were donated to the college by Dr. Natalie Hahn.

Dr. Hahn dedicated 38 years to working with the United Nations and helping African countries tackle a variety of issues. “Working for children’s rights, those were the periods of HIV, malaria. I also worked with women and finance, ensuring the women would get more loans and financial assistance,” she said.

But at the end of her career, she returned to her roots.

“I’m a Polk farm girl, and my international experience started with being 4H, international farm youth exchange to New Zealand, Rotary to India, and I was hooked,” Dr. Hahn said.

While in Africa, Dr. Hahn amassed an extensive collection of art from about 28 different countries and later asked Peru’s State President Dr. Michael Evans if the college would be interested in displaying all of the pieces.

“It was a moment of just excitement,” Dr. Evans said.

While planning out the African art displays, Dr. Hahn and Dr. Evans realized they shared a common love for an African artist named Twins 77.

“When she said that, I almost fell out of my chair because my mentor from graduate school, and one of my dearest friends for decades now, wrote the definitive book about that artist,” Dr. Evans said.

For the opening event, they invited Dr. Evans’ mentor, Dr. Henry Glassie, to give a lecture about the art.

“We’re really both students of the people of the world and as students of people of the world, what we want to know is how other people envision the world,” Dr. Glassie said.

To paint a better picture of the colorful continent, Peru State invited invited people to share its culture.

“We are here to shake the Peru State College. Africa is more than a home of lions, tigers, giraffes and all those wild animals. We are here to inform them Africa is about people- the people of Africa, and we will do all of this through traditional dancing and drumming,” Charles Ahovissi, with African Culture Connection said.

It’s the people that Dr. Hahn wants the students at Peru State College to get to know.

“I collected it because I was so overwhelmed and so impressed in people being very poor but very creative in their art. And even though they had nothing, there would be a nativity set out of mud, there would be cement statues. There would be wonderful little thorn carvings made out of local thorns. This was particularly the case in Nigeria. So it was people having nothing but having artistic skills and having elegance,” Dr. Hahn said.

People can view Dr. Hahn’s collection in the art gallery in the AV Larson Building or many of her works will be scattered throughout the seven buildings on the Peru State College campus.

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