spring 2010 events -- coming soon!!

Public Programs Fall 2009

Thursday, September 3, 5-7 pm

200 at 200 - Opening Reception

Thursday, September 10, 4 pm, Lena Vigna, Curator of Exhibitions, Miami University Art Museum (Gallery Talk)

Figure and Form: The Body as Subject and Object

Thursday, September 17, 4 pm, Professor Ellen Price, Department of Art, Miami University

Ring of Truth: The Visual Mediation of Reality

Do we live in a world of cross-mediation? Do visuals have the power to construct the social?  This presentation will examine how visuals are a place where meanings get constructed and contested.

Thursday, October 1, 4-6 pm

Darwin's Firsts - Opening Reception

Tuesday, October 13, Noon (Brown Bag)  Bob Wicks, Ph.D., Director, Miami University Art Museum

“From the Author”:  Presentation Copies of Darwin’s 1859 On the Origin of Species

The first edition of On the Origin of Species was limited to 1,250 copies; famously the entire edition was sold to the trade on the first day of publication.  What is less well known is that fifty-eight copies of Origin were sent out for presentation and review.  Of that number, the whereabouts of no more than two dozen can be accounted for. The Lloyd Library’s presentation copy (here on exhibit) was sent to Sir Walter Eliot in Madras, India, providing insight into the dissemination of scientific knowledge in the nineteenth century.

Friday, October 16, 2-3:45 pm  

Asian Art at the Miami University Art Museum

Conference on Midwestern Asian Affairs:
Topics include new perspectives on dating the ancient art of Gandhara (Carolyn Schmidt), Chinese paintings (Ann Wicks), Chinese and Japanese screen painting (Robert Wicks).

A tour of the galleries begins at 4 pm.

Thursday, October 22, 4 pm  Jesse Mathes (Artist Talk)

Figure & Form: Negotiating Personal Space through Adornment

Artist Jesse Mathes will speak about the evolution of her work and her interest in the psychology of adornment and personal space. She has been featured in Metalsmith Magazine, Lapidary Journal, and other national publications. Her work, Personal Space: eighteen inches is on view in gallery 3.

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“The American Reception of Darwin, 1859-1900: An Interdisciplinary Introduction”

This interactive talk will explore the U.S. reception of Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) from an interdisciplinary perspective, focusing on the varied and often surprising ways in which individuals and even entire fields incorporated, challenged, and reformulated Darwin’s groundbreaking ideas about the origins of life on earth.  Students and attendees will be encouraged to participate in the discussion and to imagine themselves in the context of the late 1800s, as well as reflect on the ways in which the U.S. reception of evolutionary theory has changed over time.

Thursday, November 12, 4 pm
Friday, November 13, 7 pm

Re:Design:  a play by Craig Baxter

Re:Design is a play about the life and ideas of Charles Darwin.  Drawn directly from his voluminous correspondence, it features two actors—Charles Darwin (played by Luke Utter) and Asa Gray, a botanist and professor of natural history at Harvard University, (played by Howard Blanning).  Re:Design explores the conflicts of science and religion in the middle of the nineteenth century, raising issues that remain relevant in our day.

Thursday, November 19, 4 pm  Robert S. Wicks, Ph.D., Director, Miami University Art Museum

Paint it Black: Color and Meaning in Ceramic Traditions

This presentation examines the underlying symbolism and the impact of local technologies on the development of monochrome wares in ancient Greece, South America, the American Southwest, German salt glazed ceramics, and English Wedgewood. Most artifacts represented in the lecture can be viewed in the current exhibition Compositions in Black and White.