The Cyber Gallery you are entering is an exhibition of objects collected over many years that demonstrate the extraordinary beauty of sculptures, masks, and paintings produced by many cultures over a long expanse of human history. Although they necessarily reflect the taste and preferences of the collector, they demonstrate and create an awareness of line and form that would satisfy almost any lover of art. Along with music, language and science, art is a demonstration of imagination and intelligence that expresses so manifestly what it is to be human.

These objects also are about life and cultures that grew from the mind of mankind as life on the planet expanded over the vast time horizons that led us to the beginnings of the 21st century. Some objects are from the immense continent of Africa where the human experiment began. Others were made along the greatest of the trade routes – The Silk Road – that introduced and blended cultures from West to East and from East to West, across Europe and the vast Asian continent. Still others are from the Americas, over the land bridge that brought humans to the northern regions of Canada down to the southern expanses of Patagonia.

Every eye and every mind will experience art in a different way – beauty is, indeed, in the eye of the beholder. In doing so, we should try to examine and enjoy the boundaries that separate us and make us different, while at the same time we acknowledge the universal inspirations that bind us and make us so similar. We are of unparalleled diversity while being part of the same species. An awareness and appreciation of the artistic creations of our fellow humans is a wonderful way to understand that our shared interests and future promise lie in an enthusiastic celebration of our open-ended individuality.

R. M. Borden