CONTEXT MATTERS

THE MATERIALITY OF OBJECTS IN THE MUSEUM

What are the many meanings of an artwork or artifact when it is displayed in an institutional setting? Is it so important to see the “real” thing? Much has been written about the role of objects as tools for teaching, or about the museum as a kind of classroom, but what about the ontology of the object in the structured particularity of a museum context? This question has become increasingly important as the nature of what constitutes a “real” thing is constantly changing. Recent developments in technology, advances in AI, and even social movements have raised questions about how objects should be displayed and contextualized, or even what constitutes a museum.

Thursday, October 5: 6-8 PM

Gregory Warden

Mark A. Roglán Director, Custard Institute for Spanish Art and Culture

Emeritus Professor of Art History SMU

Introduction

Anne Balsamo

Arts and Humanities Distinguished University Chair, The University of Texas at Dallas

The Distributed Museum: How Objects Matter

Maurizio Forte

 William and Sue Gross Distinguished Professor of Classical Studies and of Art,

Art History, and Visual Studies, Duke University

The Invisible Museum: Performing Objects in Between AI and Human Brains

Friday, October 6, 10 AM – 1 PM

Introduction

Gregory Warden

Michael Corris

Emeritus Professor of Art, SMU

The Long Road to the Transfiguration of the Museum of Art

Anthony Elia

Director and J.S. Bridwell Foundation Endowed Librarian

Bridwell Library & Perkins School of Theology, SMU

Virtue Ethics or Vulture Ethics? Reflections on Our Confessional Distance from Culpability in the Arts

Responses from the Museum

Amanda Dotseth

Linda P. and William A. Custard Director of the Meadows Museum

and Centennial Chair in the Meadows School of the Arts, SMU

Michelle Rich

Ellen and Harry S. Parker III Associate Curator of Indigenous American Art

Dallas Museum of Art