Virtual

Join Susan Kern, Executive Director of Historic Campus, as she discusses a surprising discovery found at the Wren Building in summer 2019. Managing water was a challenge in the 18th century too. In the summer of 2019, paving repair inadvertently exposed a vaulted brick drain in the Wren Courtyard, which prompted a flurry of unexpected archaeology and preservation planning to document and protect this massive early 18th century engineering project just under our feet.

In this workshop participants will learn the secrets to creating images with dynamic depth and dimension utilizing linear perspective with Director of Engagement Steve Prince. Students will explore one-point, two-point, and three-point perspective and learn how to draw simple to complex structures. The instructor will issue a supply list for all participants to purchase and follow along in the virtual classroom. This class is open to teens and adults. Members, W&M Faculty, Staff, and Students: $10 Non-Members: $25 Only 25 spots, so be sure to grab your ticket now!

Join Art Historian Elaine Ruffolo for a virtual presentation through the history of portraiture. What profile picture do you have on your social media account? How do you want to be portrayed, regarded, and remembered? Portraiture is a very old art form going back to ancient Egypt, where it flourished from about 5,000 years ago. Before the invention of photography, a painted, sculpted, or drawn portrait was the only way to record the appearance of someone. Portraits can represent individuals in many different ways. They can be literal representations of a person or they can represent a person symbolically. But…

When they launched the design competition for their new headquarters in 1922, the publishers of the Chicago Tribune were seeking to build “the world’s most beautiful office building.”  Prizes totaling $100,000 were offered to entrants, and 263 designers from 23 countries submitted entries.  The competition was a watershed moment in the evolution of skyscraper architecture, and the diversity of the entries underscored the broad palette available to architects as they struggled with appropriate forms for tall buildings.  In this lecture, David Brashear will examine the importance of the competition and some of the noteworthy submissions.

Join Colette Loll, the Founder and Director of Art Fraud Insights, as she details the stories behind the headlines and describes the scoundrels that perpetrated the frauds that were featured in her groundbreaking exhibition Treasures on Trial. She will describe fake-busting techniques used to determine authenticity, and while focused on art and antiques, will also discuss objects from other collector categories such as fine wine, sports memorabilia, and most recently, her project with ancient texts. Members, W&M Students, Faculty and Staff: Free Non-Members: $10

Join us for a special discussion with Elizabeth Mead who curated the exhibition Looking out, at, in and back again. Mead will discuss the works from the Muscarelle collection included in the exhibition and how it serves as an interdisciplinary laboratory for the class Neuroaesthetics: The Artist and the Mind taught by her and Jennifer Stevens of the Department of Psychological Sciences as part of the W. Taylor Reveley Interdisciplinary Fellows program.

Join Elaine Ruffolo for an unhindered gaze into court life in Mantua. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Italy gradually fragmented into numerous little territories with unique political systems. Debilitating violence all too often ensued as the leading families fought with fellow citizens for dominance of the city. A common outcome from the 13th century onwards was the imposition of autocratic rule by a single prince and by the 15th century, most of Italy was organized around princely courts. Mantua is deeply connected to the history of a particular family, which ruled and determined the town’s fate. The Gonzaga…

Join us for a special lecture with Thiago Piwowarczyk, Founder and Owner of New York Art Forensics, a firm dedicated to full-service art consulting for the purposes of authentication, attribution and conservation. This lecture will focus on how art authentication investigations can be scientifically challenging, but sometimes, the challenge lies elsewhere. From historical research to exposing scams, join us as we examine some past cases tackled by New York Art Forensics. Members, W&M Students, Faculty and Staff: Free Non-Members: $10

Universities have been addressing their histories of racial injustices in a variety of ways. William & Mary and the University of Virginia have designed memorials to enslaved workers, and the one at the University of Virginia has been constructed. William & Mary’s Jody Allen and the University of Virginia’s Louis Nelson '90 will explore the process and meaning of these projects in a panel moderated by Sara Bon-Harper.

Learn more about William & Mary’s upcoming Memorial to the Enslaved through a discussion by the project’s key stakeholders. The final design, Hearth, by William Sendor, W&M ’11 was unveiled in 2020 and construction is slated to begin in 2021. Panelists include Jody Allen, Director of The Lemon Project; Chon Glover, Chief Diversity Officer; Susan Kern, Executive Director of Historic Campus; Ed Pease, architect and adjunct professor; Burt Pinnock, Principal, Chairman, Baskervill; and William Sendor, W&M ’11, designer. Muscarelle Members, W&M Staff, Faculty, Students, Alumni: Free Non-Members: $10

Piero della Francesca is acknowledged today as one of the foundational artists of the Renaissance and more than any other Italian fifteenth-century painter, Francesca was responsible for the development of Renaissance painting in Florence, and its crucial dissemination throughout Italy. Join Renaissance art historian, Elaine Ruffolo who will attempt to virtually capture Piero’s extraordinary career along his journey through Tuscany, Umbria and Urbino.

The small Tuscan town of Pienza is often considered the first ideally planned city of the Renaissance. It had been a small agricultural town, known as Corsignano, until its most famous son, Pope Pius II, decided it needed a reboot to properly reflect its status as birthplace of a pope. In this talk, Zaloga will look at the town’s idyllic location, crowning a gentle hill in the rolling Val d’Orcia, a landscape that was much beloved of the pope, and the exquisitely designed buildings, exploring what makes them beautiful and how their relationships with each other and with the people of…

Jessica Streit will begin the evening presentation with medieval Le Puy-en-Velay, a city that serves as the starting point for one of the four major routes to Santiago de Compostela. Her talk will feature two of the city's 12th-century pilgrimage monuments, showing how they engender feelings of arrival and a desire to keep moving for their audience of pilgrims. Kathleen Jenkins will then bring us to the 21st century. Drawing from her recent ethnography, Walking the Way Together: How Families Connect on the Camino de Santiago, Kathleen will present stories of families investing in pilgrimage as a practice for strengthening…

Padua can rightly claim its place among Italy’s most interesting and historic cities. Nicknamed La Dotta (the Learned), Padua is the intellectual center of the Veneto, once home to the great Roman historian Livy. Since 1221 it has been home to one of Europe’s most celebrated universities, which counts Petrarch, Dante and Galileo among its alumni. Artists including Giotto, Donatello and Mantegna, all left their artistic marks on this lively town. Padua attracts thousands of pilgrims every year as it is the resting place of Saint Anthony of Padua, and his exotic, seven domed mosque of a basilica is the city’s most striking landmark.…

In 1932 the Museum of Modern Art had its first architectural exhibition, organized by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, Modern Architecture: International Exhibition.  After closing in New York, the exhibition toured across America for three years, spreading Hitchcock and Johnson’s conception of modernism throughout the United States.  The ideas presented in the show were both highly influential and controversial, as it excluded many examples of contemporary American architectural practice.  In this lecture Dr. Lord will explore the formal components of the International Style as described by Hitchcock and Johnson, critical responses to the exhibition, and the legacy of the International…

In 2004, Michael Arad won the design competition for the World Trade Center memorial. Arad, a young Israeli-American architect, studied at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture and lived in New York when the Towers fell. His design, entitled Reflecting Absence, was selected out of over 5,000 entries and is a powerful example of commemorative and healing architecture. In this talk, Arad will give insights into his process and the healing nature of memorials. Muscarelle Members, W&M Staff, Faculty, Students, Alumni: Free Non-Members: $10

September 18 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Speaker: Elaine Ruffolo, Art Historian
Phone: 757.221.2700, Email: museum@wm.edu
Free with registration
Virtual

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Join Art Historian Elaine Ruffolo for The History of Venice and the Art of Titian. By the opening of the 15th century, Venice had become the leading maritime power in the Mediterranean and possibly the wealthiest city in Europe. Venice’s holdings on the Italian mainland began to turn a profit, and in turn, public patronage of the arts was on the rise. At the same time, the Venetian school of painting led by the great Tiziano Vecelli (Titian) was reaching the height of its power and influence, a position that it maintained until the last years of the 16th century. In a society as conscious of tradition as Venice, the success of artists depended on their ability to evoke and blend with the glorious past.