Reveals, opens at the Bermuda National Gallery on October 3, a host of local docents (guides) will be on hand to explain its finer points to the general public.

They will have been trained by two experts from the Museum for African Art in New York, which originally staged the exhibition.

A two-day training seminar has been set up for the many volunteers who have offered their services.

The first day consists of an introductory lecture and slide show and a preliminary tour of the exhibition. On the second day, the entire exhibition will be "dissected'', offering different perspectives for the docents, enabling them to deal equally well with visitors of all ages and levels of education.

Gallery director Mrs. Laura Gorham says that two special lecture tours have also been arranged for the Island's teachers -- a necessary move, since it is now expected that around 8,000 school children will be visiting the show.

Secrecy: African Art that Conceals and Reveals is organised around a series of questions. The visitor will be asked to consider how African artists visualise the tradition of secrecy which is endemic to African life; who has the right to the acquisition of secret knowledge; and how this concept of secrecy has affected westerners' interpretations of African art and culture.

Ms Mary H. Nooter, Senior Curator of the New York museum points out that secrecy suggests a paradox, for although the content of a secret is to be guarded and hidden, its existence is often intended to be flaunted and revealed. To be a party to secret knowledge is a form of power, she says, and from time immemorial, art has proved to be the natural, visual mechanism by which this fact is broadcast.

The exhibition features more than 100 works which are mostly from western Africa. Included will be sculpted and carved figures, textiles, an African throne, a secret dance enclosure and part of a chief's house. All artefacts examine secrecy as a means of communication and commentary within each society.

The personnel conducting the seminar includes the curator of education at the Museum for African Art, Ms Carol Thompson. In the past three years since she has been part of the educational staff, the number of group visitors has tripled. She has been particularly successful in her aim of making the museum more accessible and attractive to New York City's teenagers. Ms Thompson received a Bachelor's degree in art history from Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota and her Masters (with a specialisation in African art) from the University of Iowa. Recently, she has been teaching an undergraduate introductory course on African art.

In 1989 she travelled to Malawi where she created the exhibition, Preserving Malawi's Cultural Heritage, working alongside officials of the Museums of Malawi in Blantyre. She has also been to Ghana and Togo to purchase African publications for the African Imprint Library Services. While there, she was able to spend some time visiting villages, observing and studying African masking traditions.

Also travelling to Bermuda to train the local docents is Lubangi Muniania, education assistant and public programmes co-ordinator at the Museum for African Art.

Mr. Muniania, who was educated in Zaire, also attended Hunter College in New York, before joining the museum staff.

The exhibition, which arrived in Bermuda at the beginning of the month, will take up the entire National Gallery. Design and installation is by Ms "D'' Woods and Mr. David Mitchell.

The exhibition opens on October 3 and runs through December 31. There will be three organised tours daily for adults, at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2.30 p.m.

Special school tours will take place at 9.30 and 10.15 a.m. Admission is $3.

There will be no charge for children, but Mrs. Gorham is suggesting that each child be encouraged to make a donation of $1. "We want the children to know that the gallery is their gallery and that they can help to support it, if they wish,'' she said.

Gallery officials are appealing for volunteers to act as docents. There will be no charge for the seminar, although on completion each person is expected to give at least one tour a week. Volunteers are also needed to help out with the gallery shop, which will be featuring authentic jewellery and artefacts from Africa. Anyone who would like to help is asked to telephone the Bermuda National Gallery at 295-9428.

OUT OF DARKNESS -- Janus-faced wooden crest mask from the secret Night Society of Cameroon. The piece is from a private collection in Switzerland.

IN THE COLLECTION -- Initiation mask, Mali, made of banana wood, feathers, horns, quills and organic materials.