From Dudley, a magical African trip

On the first floor, a group of 2,500-year-old Nigerian terra-cotta statues are on display. Textiles, stitched by hand and foot, adorn the walls, while meticulously crafted jewelry and wooden statuettes are exhibited in glass cases.

It's a world-class art gallery. And it's in Roxbury, near Dudley Square.

"Most of the art galleries in Boston just reflect the culture of today, contemporary issues, and American tastes," said Bobbi Hamill, who runs the Hamill Gallery of African Art with her husband, Tim.

"But here in this gallery, there is a window into an entirely different world. Everything in here has a magical meaning to it."

Situated two-thirds of a mile southeast of the Museum of Fine Arts and a short walk from the Melnea Cass Boulevard stop on the Silver Line, the Hamill gallery charges no admission fee for visitors to peruse artworks throughout its 7,000-square-foot exhibition space.

Though Roxbury may not be the first place you'd expect to find such a collection, Tim said his gallery is part of a thriving art community.

"It's nice to be here in Roxbury," he said. "There is a very nice art scene here. There are institutions such as ACT Roxbury, which oversees art and craft activities in the community, the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, and the annual open studios event. They are gradually adding to the art community, too."

In turn, the gallery helps foster the arts in the neighborhood. "The gallery is not too expensive for the average person, and it's a gallery where you don't walk in and feel threatened," said Cynthia Becker, a Boston University professor with a specialty in African art.

"I've taken my art class there and it was a great learning opportunity for them to find out more about African art and the African art market."

Tim's interest in African art stretches back to his college years at Boston University, when he saw his first examples of what would one day become his passion. About 20 years later, in the early 1980s, Hamill began collecting African art from flea markets and galleries in New York and Boston. These days, people from Africa come to Roxbury and bring art to Tim's door.

"I'm very fortunate to be able to work with my passion," said Tim. "Most people would consider this a hobby, but for me it's also my business. I collect the art first because I like it."

The gallery opened in 1990 after being converted from a picture-framing business that Tim, a BU College of Fine Arts graduate, ran out of the same building for the previous 10 years. In 2003, he married Bobbi, whom he met when she bought art from him, and they've run the gallery together since.

The Hamills are helped out by Rand Smith, an African art expert who moved to Boston from Colorado last year and runs his own African art business called Rand Tribal.

"Rand is a tremendous amount of what we know," said Bobbi.

The small staff means each person has an immense amount of work. The Hamills are constantly setting up shows, editing their website (hamillgallery.com), packing and shipping artwork, among their many duties.

The Hamill gallery changes its exhibits four times each year, and an exhibition of all white-colored objects is planned for sometime this summer. Overall, 75 tribes are represented in the Hamills' extensive collection.

On the second floor, the Hamills have set up a reading room. Visitors can thumb through a library filled with hundreds of books, giving them a more efficient way to learn about African art, compared with the Internet.

"It's surprising that Greater Boston doesn't avail itself more often to the resources that we have here," said Bobbi. "We have textbook publishers who come from around the world to us to take pictures of our art to put in their books. The gallery is a terrific resource, and it has really been underutilized."

The gallery sustains itself financially by selling some of the artworks. Its top floor and its basement serve as a warehouse for about 40,000 objects, with everything from hand-carved doors to masks used to create the illusion of breathing fire. Browsing through the website uncovers prices ranging from $50 for a beaded hat from the Kuba people, to $5,000 for a Songye mask.

The majority of the Hamills' sales are via the Internet, though most of the visitors to the gallery - some hail from as far away as Japan, France, and Australia - are clients looking to add to their art collections.

For Bobbi, the finances are less important that the artwork itself.

"Everything in this gallery has so much meaning," she said. "There is an aspect of magic to all of this art. There are things here that were used for healing purposes. There are things here that were meant to protect homes from intruders. Everything has this magic behind it."

The gallery, at 2164 Washington St., is open from noon until 6 p.m. through the summer on Thursdays through Sundays.