ONE OF THE STRENGTHS of the O’Donnell Institute has always been dynamic in-person events: collection tours, workshop talks, lectures, and symposia. We started the year 2020 with a groundbreaking lecture by the late Rick Brettell and his research assistant Elipida Vouitsis, on the iconic work by Paul Gauguin, “D’où venons-nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous?: New thoughts on pictorial invention.” A rapt audience sat shoulder to shoulder in Horchow Auditorium at the Dallas Museum of Art, listening to what would be Rick’s last public lecture. Thankfully we recorded this talk, and it is available in our new Digital Programs Library on the EODIAH website along with links to many of his other public talks, conversations, and publications. Watch the recording here.
After in-person workshops in early 2020 by DMA curators Drs. Vivian Li and Mark Castro, as well as stalwarts in the field of Roman art and archaeology, Drs. John Clarke and Elaine Gaza, by mid-March we pivoted quickly to close our physical doors and open our virtual ones.
Summer 2020 brought a series of virtual talks in partnership with our Naples Research Center, Centro per la Storia dell’Arte e dell’Architettura delle Città Portuali (La Capraia), featuring long-form digital lectures by well-known Italian scholars exploring art and architecture on the Bay of Naples from antiquity to today. Paolo Giulierini, Director of MANN (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Naploli) spoke about the famed museum of antiquity and its aims to redefine its role as a center of cultural exchange within the local and global community. Bianca de Divitiis, Associate Professor of Art History, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, reframed Renaissance architecture in the Italian south, and Andrea Viliani, Head and Curator of Castello di Rivoli Research Institute, told the story of the formation of the contemporary art collection at the Museo di Capodimonte, all recorded and archived in our Digital Program Library to watch here.
While virtual talks and lectures can never replace the dynamic exchange that happens in front of a work of art or around a seminar table, going virtual has given us the benefit of recording and archiving these scholarly conversations, for viewing and reference for years to come. Moreover, they have allowed participation from colleagues and scholars all over the world who perhaps could not have flown in for a lecture, but can certainly attend over Zoom. In many ways this has widened our reach, and opened up access for broader participation and involvement.
Fall 2020 saw talks from esteemed colleagues such as Dr. Jacqueline Chao, Senior Curator of Asian Art at the Crow Museum of Asian Art of The University of Texas at Dallas, our own Bonnie Pitman, Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the O’Donnell Institute and Director of Art-Brain Innovations at the Center for BrainHealth, and Dr. Katherine Brodbeck, Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the DMA. Drs. Sarah Kozlowski and Mark Rosen, Associate Director of EODIAH and Associate Professor, respectively, wrapped up the year 2020 with complementary talks on Early Modern art; Dr. Kozlowski with a riveting new look at the Stuttgart Apocalypse Panels from 14th century Naples, and Dr. Rosen with a close look at images of clouds and their role in early modern cartography. Browse the recorded lectures here.
Released periodically over the course of the Fall semester, in partnership with the Athenaeum Review, we hosted a timely series of interviews centered on the notion of monuments and cultural heritage, entitled, “Falling and Rising: Public Monuments and Cultural Heritage in a Time of Crisis.” Featuring short interviews with art historians, historians, and archaeologists, we examined the current cultural moment of renewed attention to the role of public art. Catch up on the episodes here.
All in all, as we look to the bright future of a post-pandemic world, we are all eager to get into the energizing space of the museum, gallery, and classroom. We hope to be among the first to open safe, in-person programming. But we also hope to keep the best of virtual events, keeping the ability to open up participation from our friends and colleagues around the world. Stay up to date and register for upcoming events, and peruse our Digital Program Library here.
Heather Bowling
Research Coordinator
The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History