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Public Programs
The Institute: your destination for the past, present, and future of art.
Connect to the latest thinking about the arts from ancient times to tomorrow’s prospects. Become part of the conversation, choose from our extensive range of lecture series, special lectures, panel discussions, workshops, and conferences.
2023 Calendar
- September
- Thursday, September 7, 2023, at 6:00pm
Series: Pre-Columbian Society of New York
Speaker: Jeffrey C. Splitstoser, Assistant Research Professor of Anthropology, George Washington University and Vice President of the Boundary End Archaeology Research Center
Title: The Andean Khipu in Context with other Knotted String Traditions of the Americas
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Description: A search of “knotted string records” produces a slew of references to “Quipu/Khipu,” the information system used by the lnkas to manage their vast South American empire. Yet the use of knotted strings to keep track of information was widespread throughout not only the Americas but the whole world. While khipus may be the most sophisticated example of knotted string devices, they are/were not alone. After briefly reviewing the various knotted mnemonic devices known to have existed in the Americas, this talk will explore in depth the similarities and differences between lnka khipus and a sophisticated, yet relatively unknown, Costa Rican knotted-string census from 1874.
Jeffrey C. Splitstoser is assistant research professor of anthropology at the George Washington University and vice president of the Boundary End Archaeology Research Center. He has studied ancient Andean textiles for over 20 years, having recently discovered (with Tom Dillehay, Jan Wouters and Anna Claro) the world’s earliest known use of indigo blue in a 6,200-year-old cotton textile from the prehistoric site of Huaca Prieta. Dr. Splitstoser specializes in Wari “khipus,” colored and knotted string devices that Andean peoples used to record information. He co-curated (with Juan Antonio Murro) the exhibition Written in Knots: Undeciphered Records of Andean Life at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. Dr. Splitstoser’s research includes reproducing the khipus and textile structures he encounters: processing, spinning and dyeing the fibers, as well as growing cotton and dye plants. Dr. Splitstoser is an editor of the journals Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing and Ancient America and was the guest editor of volume 49 of The Textile Museum Journal. He was a junior fellow at Dumbarton Oaks and is currently a research associate of the Institute of Andean Studies and a Cosmos Club Scholar. Dr. Splitstoser received a Ph.D. in anthropology from the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
- Friday, September 8, 2023, at 6:00pm
Series: China Project Workshop
Description: Lu Pengliang, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York presents on “Recasting the Past: The Power of Bronze in China, 1100-1900.” The discussion will be moderated by Jonathan Hay (Institute of Fine Arts, NYU) - Monday, September 18, 2023, at 6:00pm
Title: Summer Projects Day I
The Institute of Fine Arts invites you to an evening of presentations from current conservation students on their summer 2023 work projects.
learn more about Jeffrey C. Splitstoser's talk
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Presentations will include:
Celia Cooper
Conservation at the Weissman Preservation CenterEmily Jenne
Historic bookbinding, 16 mm film inspection, and treatment of works on paper from the Fales Downtown CollectionLucia Elledge
Treatment of works of art on paper at the Art Institute of ChicagoDevon Lee
Conservation of taxidermy specimens at the Natural History Museum of Denmark - Tuesday, September 26, 2023 at 6:00pm
Series: Latin American Forum
Title: Curating the Nation: A Lecture by E. Carmen Ramos moderated by Edward J. Sullivan
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In 2021, the National Gallery of Art in Washington embarked on a new course after it redefined its mission, vision, and values, which are all deeply grounded in deepening and expanding the museum’s collections and its service to audiences. In this talk, E. Carmen Ramos will discuss how she has navigated her new role and worked to embody the ideas of being an audience centered institution and being of the nation and for all the people.
E. Carmen Ramos is Chief Curatorial and Conservation Officer at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She leads the curatorial and conservation teams as they serve the nation and beyond through collections development, ground-breaking scholarship, art conservation, and scientific research. Ramos previously served as the acting chief curator and curator of Latinx art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), where she built one of the largest collections of Latinx art at a museum of U.S. art. She organized award-winning exhibitions including ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now (2020), Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art (2013), and Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography (2017). In addition to her numerous catalogues, her scholarship appears in American Art, and in books including Picturing Cuba: Art, Culture and Identity on the Island.
ABOUT THE LATIN AMERICAN FORUM
The Latin American Forum is a platform sustained in partnership with ISLAA that brings artists, scholars, and critics of the arts of the Americas to The Institute of Fine Arts, providing a platform for discussions and debates about diverse issues pertaining to contemporary arts and visual cultures throughout the hemisphere.
This series of public programs and events is coordinated by Edward J. Sullivan, Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the History of Art, the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and organized by graduate students. Since partnering with ISLAA in 2011, NYU’s Latin American Forum has hosted more than thirty events.
- Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 5:00pm
Annual Selinunte Lecture
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Presenters: Dr. Seán Hemingway, John A. and Carole O. Moran Curator in Charge of the Department of Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Dr. Mario La Rocca, General Director, Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; Dr. Caterina Greco, Director, Archaeological Museum of Palermo “Antonino Salinas"; Dr. Felice Crescente, Director, Archaeological Park of Selinunte, Cave di Cusa, and Pantelleria; Prof. Clemente Marconi (Institute of Fine Arts–NYU), Director, IFA–NYU and UniMi mission in Selinunte; Prof. Andrew Ward (Emory University), Field Director, IFA–NYU and UniMi mission in Selinunte.
This year marks a major step forward in the work of the mission on the Acropolis of Selinunte of the Institute of Fine Arts–NYU and the University of Milan. A new permit, issued by the director of the Archaeological Park, Dr. Felice Crescente, extends the area of operation of our mission to the entire main urban sanctuary. Covering two hectares, this was one of the largest sacred areas in the Greek Mediterranean during the Archaic and Classical periods, well known for its abundant monumental architecture but still largely unexcavated underneath the levels of the Punic phase, when the site was abandoned within the context of the First Punic War. This extension has already led to remarkable new finds related to the original articulation of the area during the past excavation season, which has also produced remarkable new finds in the area of Temple R.
Another major reason for celebration this year is the new collaborative agreement between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana, which was announced in May. This agreement provides for long-term loans of ancient masterpieces to the museum and the exchange of three-year loans between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Archaeological Regional Museum “Antonino Salinas” of Palermo. The agreement follows decades of successful collaboration between the museum and the Republic of Italy, and it started with a series of loans from Selinunte currently on view in the Met’s Greek and Roman galleries.
The events calendar is subject to change. Please check this webpage for updates. Many of our recent lectures are available to watch online in our events archive.
- Thursday, September 7, 2023, at 6:00pm
- October
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Monday, October 2, 2023 at 6:00pm
Series: Pre-Columbian Society of New York
Speaker: L. Antonio Curet, Curator, National Museum of the American Indian
Title: Trouble in Paradise: History and Disaster at the Ceremonial Center of Tibes, Puerto Rico
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Description: The archaeological site of Tibes, located in southern Puerto Rico, is to date the earliest ceremonial center in the Caribbean. It consists of nine stone structures and includes a variety of archaeological deposits. The information at hand suggests that the site began as a village around AD 500 and it acted as a ceremonial center from AD 900 to 1250, when it was abandoned. Traditionally, this shift has been interpreted by scholars as evidence of the development of social stratification. However, evidence obtained by the current project questions this interpretation and is proposing a new explanation based on evidence of a hurricane of high intensity.
L. Antonio Curet is a Curator of the National Museum of the American Indian. He was born in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico in 1960 and attended the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras where he obtained his B.A. and M.A. in Chemistry. Curet received his Ph.D. in 1992 from Arizona State University. He was part of the faculty at Gettysburg College (1993-1996) and University of Colorado at Denver (1996-2000). From 2000 to 2013 he was Curator at the Field Museum and Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and DePaul University. His research focuses on cultural and social change in the Ancient Caribbean, but he has participated also in archaeological projects in Arizona, Puerto Rico, and Veracruz, Mexico. He has directed several projects including Excavations at La Gallera, Ceiba, Puerto Rico and the Archaeological Project of the Valley of Maunabo. Since 1995 he has been conducting excavations at the Ceremonial Center of Tibes, Ponce, Puerto Rico and in 2013 began co-directing a regional project in the Valley of Añasco in Western Puerto Rico. Curet has published multiple articles in national and international journals, a book on Caribbean paleodemography, and has edited volumes on Cuban Archaeology, the archaeology of Tibes, Puerto Rico, and long-distance interaction in the Caribbean. He is also in the editorial boards of the Journal for Caribbean Archaeology, Revista Arqueológica del Area Intermedia, and Latin American Antiquity, Antípoda(Universidad de los Andes, Colombia) and is the editor of the Caribbean Archaeology and Ethnohistory Book Series of the University of Alabama Press.
- Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 6:00pm
Series: Silberberg Lecture
Speaker: Dr. Chelsea Brislin, Faculty in Appalachian Studies at the University of Kentucky
Title: From Abner to Deliverance: Representations of Appalachia in North American Media
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Description: Representations of the Appalachia region in literature, art and pop culture have historically shifted between hyperbolic, colorful caricatures to grotesque, sensationalized, black and white photography. This wide spectrum of depictions continually resonates within the North American psyche due to its shared commonality of Appalachia as the cultural “other.” This othering frequently leaves audiences with a kind of relief that this warped representation of backwards, rural poverty is not their own progressive, present-day reality. Countless artists have exploited the region in order to show the impoverished side of rural Appalachia and spin a failed capitalistic way of life into a romanticized, intentional “return to the frontier.” Through analyzing a selection of works within literature, fine art/photography, film and television one can begin to broadly define what many Appalachians feel is lacking from their own narrative within pop culture. Something as simple as the angle of a camera can dramatically affect the way a viewer experiences a photograph and its subject. Furthermore, the chosen narrator of a novel can make the difference for a reader between a compassionate portrayal of a region previously unknown to them, and one that enforces the existing stereotype of Appalachia. This lecture will broach the subject of responsibility in the context of Appalachian cultural representation, as well as how individual artistic motivations and decisions can have negative, far-reaching consequences for the Appalachian region.
Chelsea Brislin earned her MA in Interdisciplinary Humanities from New York University and her PhD in English from the University of Kentucky, where she now serves as the Associate Director of the Gaines Center for the Humanities. Her work looks primarily at 21st century representations of Appalachia through literature, film, and television.
- Thursday, October 5, 2023, at 6:00pm
Series: Walter W.S. Cook Lecture
Speaker: Ronni Baer, Allen R. Adler, Class of 1967, Distinguished Curator and Lecturer, Princeton University Art Museum
Title: Murillo and the North: The Case of Michael Sweerts learn more about Jeffrey C. Splitstoser's talk
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Description: In addition to his sweet and deeply felt religious paintings, the Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) produced secular scenes of lower-class old women and young boys, subjects more readily associated with 17th-century northern art than Spanish painting. Murillo’s Seville was a thriving port and locus of trade with both other European mercantile centers and the rich Spanish American colonies. Art moved freely: Spain had long looked to Flanders (under Spanish Habsburg rule) for artistic products of all kinds, from tapestries for the elite to paintings at all price points to prints, which were consumed in enormous quantities, not least by artists as practical work material. Furthermore, this bustling center was home to hundreds of foreign merchants, among them three of Murillo’s most important patrons, all with ties to the North. Against this backdrop and with the help of documents that link art collectors, extended family members, and international businessmen, this talk proposes that Murillo drew on the paintings of the Brussels-born Michael Sweerts as a source for his early genre imagery.
Ronni Baer worked in curatorial departments at the Frick Collection, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the High Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art before serving for almost twenty years as Senior Curator of European Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Since 2019, she has held the position of Allen R. Adler, Class of 1967, Distinguished Curator and Lecturer at the Princeton University Art Museum. She has published numerous articles in the fields of 17th-century Dutch, Flemish, and Spanish art and in the history of collecting. Among her exhibitions (and their accompanying catalogues) are Gerrit Dou, Rembrandt’s First Pupil (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Dulwich Picture Gallery, London; and The Mauritshuis, The Hague, 2000); and, at the MFA: The Poetry of Everyday Life (2002); Rembrandt's Journey (with Cliff Ackley) (2004); El Greco to Velázquez (with IFA alumna Sarah Schroth) (2008); and Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer (with Ian Kennedy) (2016). For her work in furthering knowledge and appreciation of their art and culture, she was knighted by King Juan Carlos of Spain in 2008 and by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in 2017. In 2018, she was named the IFA’s Distinguished Alumna and Commencement Speaker. Her exhibition, Art About Art: Contemporary Photographers Look at Old Master Paintings, is currently on view in Princeton.
- Tuesday, October 10, 2023, at 6:30pm
Series: IFA Contemporary Asia
IFA Contemporary Asia is pleased to present Happening Now: A Conversation with Kyung An and Sooran Choi, on the occasion of the exhibition Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s-1970s, on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum through January 7, 2024.
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The air was fidgety in 1960s and 1970s South Korea. While the nation urgently anticipated new breakthroughs from the rapid socioeconomic transformations, Park Chung Hee’s dictatorial grip on the young republic tightened. In response, the new generation of young artists embarked on innovative and often provocative approaches to art making by experimenting with radical artistic concepts and a wide variety of mediums, including but not limited to video, installation, photography, and performance. Featuring approximately eighty works, Only the Young examines the works born out of both individual and collective experimentations, which were bounded not by a single aesthetic, but by their engagement with the dynamic social atmosphere of South Korea and the world beyond.
This discussion seeks to explore Experimental Korean art in the 60s and 70s as a unique moment in Korean history while situating it within the broader discourse of global art history, to question: How has the term “Experimental art” been forged and developed? How do we navigate between the artists’ local distinctiveness, yet avid engagement with concurrent global art movements? How does the exhibition engage with the current sociopolitical climate? The event will begin with a brief presentation and walkthrough by the exhibition curator, Kyung An, Associate Curator of Asian Art at the Guggenheim, followed by a conversation between her and Sooran Choi, Assistant Professor of Art and Art History in the School of the Arts at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT.
Dr. Kyung An is the Associate Curator of Asian Art at the Guggenheim. Since joining the museum in 2015, she has organized Sarah Sze: Timelapse (2023) and Only the Young: Experimental in Korea, 1960s-1970s (2023-24), also lending key support for Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World (2017–8) and the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative’s exhibitions, Tales of Our Time (2016–17) and One Hand Clapping (2018). In addition, An contributes to collection growth through her appointment on the International Director’s Council and the Asian Art Circle. She has also published extensively on Korean artists and contributed to May You Live in Interesting Times: Biennale Arte 2019 (Venice: La Biennale di Venezia, 2019), Guggenheim Museum Collection: A to Z (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 2019) and co-authored Who’s Afraid of Contemporary Art? (London and New York: Thames & Hudson).
Dr. Sooran Choi, Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, specializes in decolonization within avant-garde discourse, global feminism, and ecocriticism, focusing on contemporary East Asian art. Her current book manuscript, Zombie Avant-Gardes: Subterfuge in Postwar South Korean Art, investigates South Korean renditions of avant-garde art through post-colonial lenses, challenging traditional center-periphery paradigms in the context of post-WWII global artistic exchanges across East Asia, the United States, and Europe. It was awarded the 2018 College Art Association Professional Development Fellowship in Art History. Her other awards include grants from the Academy of Korean Studies and the Mellon Foundation. Her efforts to decolonize avant-garde conceptual frameworks are reflected in recent publications, “Manifestations of a Zombie Avant-garde: South Korean Performance and Conceptual Art in the 1970s" (2020); "Camouflaged Dissent: ‘Happenings’ in South Korea, 1967–1968" (2021); and "Korean Shamanism in Action/Art: The Counter-cultural Spirituality of Women and Gender Fluidity" (2023), among others.
The events calendar is subject to change. Please check this webpage for updates. Many of our recent lectures are available to watch online in our events archive.
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Monday, October 2, 2023 at 6:00pm
The events calendar is subject to change. Please check this webpage for updates, or sign up for our mailing list.