when it hosts a multi-million dollar exhibition of African Art next year.

The world-class show, coming direct from the re-vamped Centre for African Art in New York, is entitled "Secrecy: Art that Conceals and Reveals'', and its acquisition represents a major triumph for the recently opened gallery.

Bermuda will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a collection of rare and valuable African tribal artefacts gathered from museums and private collections from around the world.

According to Gallery officials, the African show promises to be, if not the first, then certainly the most spectacular ever staged in Bermuda. Divided into several sections, the exhibition will include a broad selection of sculptures, tribal costumes, jewellery and regalia, wood and ivory figures, the external facade of a chief's house and even an entire secret meeting house from the Gabon.

Gallery chairman, Mr. Jay Bluck, who last week announced support for the show in the form of a $55,000 donation from the Christian Humann Foundation to assist with Bermuda's staging of the exhibition, says, "This is a ground-breaking show and I hope that Bermuda appreciates this.

"We are very lucky that Mr. Claus Virch, who is a former director of the Metropolitan Museum in New York and chairman of the Foundation, took the trouble to go and consult with the Centre for African Art and then help us in this way.'' A steering committee which includes the Premier's wife, Lady Swan, with Mrs.

Louise Jackson as chairman, has already been formed to give the exhibition the widest possible publicity throughout the coming months and to arrange special events to coincide with the three-month duration of the show which is slated to open on October 1, 1993.

Gallery director Mrs. Laura Gorham says she would like to see the whole community involved in celebrating the African theme. In addition to a Masked Ball, where it is hoped guests will utilise masks to underline the exhibition's theme of "secrecy'' and wear African textiles, there will also be lectures arranged through the Centre for African Arts for the general public and school children.

"We hope to make this three-month period an African celebration that will be reflected by stores, galleries, art societies, theatre and dance groups,'' she explains.

Mrs. Gorham says that the Centre, which sent officials to inspect and approve of the Gallery's facilities, have shown faith in Bermuda by offering the exhibition. "Now we have to justify that faith.'' The eight year-old Centre for African Art has just moved to new premises at Soho on Broadway, near the new Guggenheim Museum, and the Secrecy exhibition will be the focus of media attention during its opening ceremonies there. The Centre's first exhibition is being sponsored by the US National Endowment of the Arts, the National Endowment of the Humanities, the Rockefeller Foundation and the New York Council for the Humanities.

In addition to the donation from the Christian Humann Foundation, Bermuda supporters will also include Esso Bermuda, Oil Insurance, Geoffrey and Fay Elliott and a number of private donors.

The New York Centre has already acquired an international reputation as an innovator in the presentation of and education about the importance of African art and its place in the world's artistic heritage. The Centre's charter states: "Exhibitions will be broad in scope, educational in subject, and of the highest aesthetic quality.'' The theme of the exhibition will explore relationships between art, secrecy and knowledge as it has pertained to different tribal societies across Africa.

Traditionally, elaborate works of art and architecture have been used to draw attention to secret, or specialised knowledge through such customs as initiation or kingship. Paradoxically, however, the inner content of such rites were often also deliberately concealed.

Masks, for instance, were used to convey obscurity, just as talismans and amulets might contain secret medicines; cast-bronze "rings of silence'' and hanging figures were employed for swearing oaths of silence.

Social and physical boundaries such as those between child and adult, royal and non-royal personages and which abounded in African society, are also explored through examples of architecture.

There will also be a section that examines Western perceptions of African art.

"Secrecy: African Art that Conceals and Reveals'', which will also be presented at four major museums across the US, opens in Bermuda with a Benefit Opening, by ticket, which will enable the holder to return to the show for a guided tour through the more than 100 exhibits.

AFRICAN ART COMMITTEE -- The Bermuda National Gallery stages its first international art show next year when "Secrecy: Art that Conceals and Reveals'' comes to Hamilton. A steering committee has been formed to organise the event and includes: (Front row, left to right): Miss Jennifer Smith, Mrs.

Louise Jackson, Lady Swan, Miss Ruth Thomas. (Second row): Mr. Jay Bluck, Mrs.

Laura Gorham, Mrs. Shirley James, Mr. Cyril Packwood. (Top row): Mr. John Kaufmann, Mrs. Phyllis Simmons, Mrs. Bonnie Dodwell and Mr. Dusty Hind.

Missing from the photograph are Ms Marilyn Simmons, Mr. Robin Judah and Mr.

Andrew Outerbridge.