On October 6, 2017, Senior Curator and Curator of Global African Art Allyson Purpura presented "World on the Horizon: A Curator's Backstory".
Dr. Purpura spoke about her research on the Swahili coast of Africa, including the relationships she and co-curator Prita Meier forged which enabled the unprecedented loans of artwork from the National Museums of Kenya and the Bait al Zubair Museum in Oman. She also described the architecture of Zanzibar and the ways in which it inspired the exhibition design for World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean.