Site-Seeing with Jan Perry

My mother was an art teacher, and so in our house art was inevitable.

As I was looking at Kwanzaa sites last week, I couldn't help but notice all the wonderful African art stores, galleries and collections available online. Here are a few of the most interesting.

http://www.tribal-art.com. When you get to this page be sure to click on the JIRAH logo (with the map of Africa) to read about the beginnings of this childhood collection which turned into a business. When you finish that page, scroll up and click on the ''Site Map'' section. This will show you what is ''live'' and what is still under construction. Even with some sections yet to come, this is still an interesting site.

http://www.theafricastore.com. A store and more. Not only will you find beautiful carvings, textiles, jewelry and other handmade items, this site provides information on the countries and tribes that provide the products as well. Not for some, legal animal skins - including Gemsbok, Jackal, Impala, Zebra - are available for purchase. (All animal products have been provided by National Parks in Africa.) And 1 percent of all sales go to a scholarship fund for African children.

http://www.africadirect.com . Africa Direct offers variety of tribal art, with good cultural information on many of the objects. The Kente cloth pieces, woven by the Ashanti people, are particularly nice but there are many beautiful items to look at and read about here.

http://www.lib.virginia.edu/clemons/RMC/exhib/93.ra y.aa/Exhibition.html. ''African Art: Aesthetics and Meaning,'' is an annotated on-line exhibition of African art from the University of Virginia. This is one you can glance through quickly, or take some time to learn about the artworks.

http://minotaur.marques.co.za/clients/zulu/index.htm. Dedicated to the art and the history of Zulu beadwork, this site includes brief histories of the Zulu Nation and traditional African bead craft as well as the Zulu beadwork language.

Don't let its visual simplicity fool you. Some of these pieces are extremely complex.

http://members .aol.com/TWard64340/Africa.htm. Great lesson plans and classroom activities for elementary students. Make masks and shields and create woven Kente-style placemats at this well-written site.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart. Based on the Stanley Collection at the University of Iowa, the online ''Art and Life in Africa Project'' provides a true wealth of information about African art and its cultural contexts. Scroll down to search the 500-plus-piece collection.

http://www.amherst.edu/~jpembert. The Maurer Collection is a group of artifacts used in rites of divination in Central and West Africa. Photos of dozens of ritual carvings are included on the site as is well-written, historically documented text.

Jan Perry is a freelance writer. Send questions or suggestions to her at SiteSeer2K@aol.com.