Plaster, Mold, Wax, & Fire The Lost Wax Casting Process @FlintInstituteofArts

Flint Institute of Arts The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation presents Plaster, Mold, Wax, & Fire The Lost Wax Casting Process

Just before he died in 1917, Auguste Rodin authorized the posthumous casting of his bronzes so that his legacy would be preserved. The Musée Rodin in Paris determines what is a true and original cast and rigorously exercises this authority. By law all posthumous casts must be approved by the Musée. If approved, they are deemed “original.”

Accordingly, all of the Rodins in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection and Cantor Foundation Collection are original. Most of these artworks were commissioned directly from the Musée Rodin and were cast by its selected foundry, Coubertin.

In this exhibition each label will help you understand the origin of the piece. The label tells you when Rodin originally modeled the piece in clay or wax. Next you will see the cast number. At the time Rodin lived, artists did not number their casts and rarely limited the number of casts that could be made of a piece. Indeed, we know Rodin was happiest when he was selling scores of casts of a single work. Nearly 40 years after Rodin’s death, France enacted a law limiting the number of casts that could be made of a piece to twelve; each of these twelve is an authorized original.

Thus, when you read a label that says “Modeled 1883, Musée Rodin cast 1 in 1996,” it is telling you that Rodin created the clay model in 1883; this bronze was cast, according to Rodin’s wishes and authorization, by the Musée Rodin in 1996. The label also tells you which foundry cast the work (Coubertin, Alexis Rudier, Godard, etc.).

updated 9 years ago

Plaster, Mold, Wax, & Fire The Lost Wax Casting Process

Flint Institute of Arts 2017-06-29 | The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation presents Plaster, Mold, Wax, & Fire The Lost Wax Casting Process

Just before he died in 1917, Auguste Rodin authorized the posthumous casting of his bronzes so that his legacy would be preserved. The Musée Rodin in Paris determines what is a true and original cast and rigorously exercises this authority. By law all posthumous casts must be approved by the Musée. If approved, they are deemed “original.”

Accordingly, all of the Rodins in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection and Cantor Foundation Collection are original. Most of these artworks were commissioned directly from the Musée Rodin and were cast by its selected foundry, Coubertin.

In this exhibition each label will help you understand the origin of the piece. The label tells you when Rodin originally modeled the piece in clay or wax. Next you will see the cast number. At the time Rodin lived, artists did not number their casts and rarely limited the number of casts that could be made of a piece. Indeed, we know Rodin was happiest when he was selling scores of casts of a single work. Nearly 40 years after Rodin’s death, France enacted a law limiting the number of casts that could be made of a piece to twelve; each of these twelve is an authorized original.

Thus, when you read a label that says “Modeled 1883, Musée Rodin cast 1 in 1996,” it is telling you that Rodin created the clay model in 1883; this bronze was cast, according to Rodin’s wishes and authorization, by the Musée Rodin in 1996. The label also tells you which foundry cast the work (Coubertin, Alexis Rudier, Godard, etc.).

Test1110

Flint Institute of Arts 2026-09-22 | ...

Sheppy Dog Fund Lecture: Painting Persian Potentates

Flint Institute of Arts 2026-07-28 | This talk will focus on 16th-century manuscript illustrations of The Shahnameh or Book of Kings. Commissioned by the second Safavid monarch, Shah Tahmasb, in the early 1500s, the paintings illuminate the great Persian epic poem penned by Abolghassem Firdawsi in the 10th century. It will explore both the poetry and the pictures, focusing on the important development of manuscript illumination in the Safavid court. Dr. Elahi will emphasize the importance of a few key painters in Shah Tahmasb’s royal atelier and how the illustrations, like the poem itself, have had a lasting influence on Iranian culture as well as world literature and art. Dr. Babak Elahi is the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Suny Polytechnic Institute. Prior to joining Suny he was Dean of the College of Sciences and Liberal Arts at Kettering University in Flint. He was also a professor of communication and literature in the College of Liberal Arts at Rochester Institute of Technology, where he also served as Associate Dean from 2011 to 2016. He holds a PhD in American literature from the University of Rochester. His scholarship spans the areas of American literature and popular culture, Iranian diasporic life writing, modern Iranian fiction and documentary film. He is also a blues singer and guitar player who has performed at local bars and cafés in the Flint area.

Coffee With a Curator: M.C. Escher: Early Experiments to Infinite Variations

Flint Institute of Arts 2026-07-14 | Join Associate Curator Rachael Holstege
to explore the mind-bending world of
M.C. Escher, inspired by the exhibition M.C.
Escher: Infinite Variations on view at the FIA.
Although known for his prints that explore
mathematical concepts and impossible
spaces, this talk will also look at some of
Escher’s earliest works from his time in Italy
and his lesser-known book illustrations.
From these formative experiments, we will
trace the evolution of his ideas through
some of his most celebrated prints—works
that challenge our understanding of
perspective, symmetry, and infinity—and
conclude with a look at the final work Escher
completed before his death, reflecting on
how his lifelong fascination with illusion and
transformation came full circle.

Sheppy Dog Fund Lecture: Fabulous Florence: Grand Duchesses and Women Artists at the Medici Court

Flint Institute of Arts 2026-06-30 | This lecture will trace the avenues for successof women patrons and artists at the Medicicourt in Florence in the 17th century. The Medici Grand Duchesses, in addition to the Grand Dukes, were avid collectors of art and
supporters of culture. Drawing on two works in Flint’s collection, Justus
Sustermans’ Maria Maddalena of Austria (Wife of Duke Cosimo II de
Medici) with Her Son, the Future Ferdinand II and Elisabetta Sirani’s
Cleopatra, this talk will trace the significant, and often untold, story of
women’s patronage of and contributions to the arts in Florence.
An authority on Italian painting in the early modern period and an
expert on early modern women artists and patrons, Eve StraussmanPflanzer joined the National Gallery of Art in 2020 as curator and head
of Italian and Spanish paintings. She was previously the head of the
European art department and the Elizabeth and Allan Shelden Curator
of European Paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) from 2016
to 2020, and has held posts at Wellesley College’s Davis Museum
in Massachusetts, the Art Institute of Chicago,
and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Straussman-Pflanzer received a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University and a BA from Smith
College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Sheppy Dog Fund Lecture: Mezcal in Oaxaca: A Craft Spirit for theGlobal Market

Flint Institute of Arts 2026-04-26 | This presentation explores Oaxacan mezcal
as a newcomer to the global market. Not
only is mezcal one of Oaxaca’s fastest growing rural industries, but it also connects the region to a vast network of producers,
brokers, and consumers across the U.S.-Mexico border and beyond. Mezcal may be joining more well-knownfoods of Mexican origin commonplace in U.S. markets (corn, chile, chocolate), but its popularity is distinctly tied to the creation of a new
class of global food consumers who prize mezcal as craft within the
artisanal food movement; at the same time, its growing popularity is
spurring questions about the sustainability of the industry and the
development taking place in Oaxaca more generally.
Dr. Ronda Brulotte is a Professor in the Department of Geography
and Environmental Sciences at the University of New Mexico. Dr.
Brulotte is an interdisciplinary scholar with training in sociocultural
anthropology and Latin American studies whose research focuses on
craft economies, cultural heritage, and material culture in Mexico. Her
books include Between Art and Artifact: Archaeological Replicas &
Cultural Production in Oaxaca, Mexico (2012), Edible Identities: Food
as Cultural Heritage (2014) (co-edited with Michael A. Di Giovine), and
Mezcal in Oaxaca: A Craft Spirit for the Global Marketplace (2025).

Artist Talk: Carole Harris and the Threads of Time

Flint Institute of Arts 2026-04-21 | Detroit-based artist Carole Harris, whose celebrated career spans more than five decades. She will discuss the evolution of her fiber-based practice that often blends traditional quiltmaking with ongoing experimentation in color, texture, and form. Harris will also reflect on her process and the role material can play in exploring themes of memory and the passage of time.

Sheppy Dog Fund Lecture: Memory & Reflection: Chagall’s Unique Modernism

Flint Institute of Arts 2026-03-31 | Marc Chagall, a Jewish artist, held fast to his lifelong memories of his childhood home in the village of
Vitebsk in Belarus, even as he absorbed the avant-garde styles he encountered in Paris. Having lived
through the tumultuous years of Nazism, the Holocaust, and the destruction of his native village, the
artist not only portrayed the horrors of war, but increasingly explored the theme of world peace. From
1938 to the 1960s, his art juxtaposed images of imperiled Eastern European Jews with such biblical
figures as Moses and the figure of Jesus on the cross. Dr. Shelley Perlove’s lecture traces the
development of Chagall’s personal vision through the discussion of such paintings as The War (1943) and
Obsession (1943).
Dr. Perlove received her doctorate in Art History from the University of Michigan. She is Professor
Emerita of the History of Art at the University of Michigan since 2011. Dr. Perlove specializes in Italian
and Dutch art of the 17th century, especially the art of Rembrandt. She authored Bernini and the
Idealization of Death, and co-authored, Rembrandt’s Faith: Church and Temple in the Dutch Golden Age.
Her most recent book projects investigate the religious works of artists in Rembrandt’s circle. Perlove has
co-edited two volumes, one on early modern drawings and the other on visual typology; and contributed
as scholar/author to such international exhibitions as Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, which opened at
the Louvre in 2009, and more recently also to the Moscow exhibition book, “Rembrandt seen by Jewish
Eyes,” published by the University of Amsterdam press. She is presently researching the secular
meanings of Old Testament subjects in Dutch art for a large book project.

Sheppy Dog Fund Lecture: Stunned by Art - The Stendhal Syndrome

Flint Institute of Arts 2026-03-10 | In 1817 the French novelist Stendhal visited the basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. He would write in his journal, I underwent the profoundest experience of ecstasy that I ever encountered through the painter’s art. As I emerged from the porch of Santa Croce, I was seized with a fierce palpitation of the heart, the well-spring of life was dried up within me, and I walked in constant fear of falling to the ground. This lecture will delve into this phenomenon of intense emotional and physical responses to art, a condition professionally diagnosed and named “Stendhal Syndrome” in 1979, referencing personal experiences with art works by Rogier van der Weyden, Raphael, Bruegel, Caravaggio, Poussin, Rembrandt, Chardin, Goya, Ingres, and Matisse, among others.
Bio:
Lawrence W. Nichols is curator emeritus at the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA), from which he retired in 2021. He joined the TMA in 1992 after serving as associate curator of the John G. Johnson Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 1986 to 1992. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and Ph.D. from Columbia University. A specialist in northern Baroque painting, his book The Paintings of Hendrick Goltzius, 1558-1617, A Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné was published in March 2013. He has curated numerous exhibitions at the TMA including “The Brilliance of Caravaggio: Four Paintings in Focus”, “Frans Hals Portraits, A Family Reunion”, “Manet: Portraying Life”, and “Van Gogh: Fields. Nichols continues to serve on the old master paintings vetting committee of The European Fine Arts Fair held in Maastricht each March. In addition, he serves on the Art Advisory Panel of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. He chaired the International Indemnity Program Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2016 to 2020.

Community Gala 2026: A Conversation with Eric Key

Flint Institute of Arts 2026-02-11 | FIA Director and Curator of Collections and
Exhibitions Sarah Kohn and art collector Eric
Key will discuss his journey as an appraiser, art
administrator, curator, collector, and advocate
of African American art.
With more than 39 years as an art
professional, Key has held leadership roles
at institutions including The Kansas African
American Museum, The Black Academy of Arts
and Letters, and the University of Maryland
Global Campus, where he has overseen major
growth in art collections and exhibitions. His
career includes curating over 250 exhibitions,
working with numerous artists and curators,
and building a personal collection of over
400 works. Key holds a master’s degree in
Museum Studies and has dedicated his life to
promoting African American art and culture
through curation, scholarship, and advocacy

Sheppy Dog Lecture Series: The Many Posthumous Lives of Albrecht Dürer

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-11-20 | Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)
enjoyed unprecedented
fame during his lifetime. In the aftermath of his death, his person,
his likeness, and his art have been celebrated for almost 500 years.
At different times, however, his legacy has been appropriated,
manipulated, and misused to fit the needs of others, from the German
Romantics to the Nazis. Dürer stands as a touchstone for an idealized
German past that seems more golden than the realities of subsequent
centuries. Dürer remains forever alive and forever contemporary as a
standard of excellence, a model for artists, a cash cow for museums,
and a commercial product pitchman.
Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Professor Emeritus and Kay Fortson Chair
in European Art at the University of Texas, Austin, specializes in
Northern European art 1400–1700, especially that of Germany and the
Netherlands. Smith’s publications focus on Nuremberg and its culture,
Albrecht Dürer, German sculpture, goldsmith work, Jesuits, Northern
Renaissance art, patronage, and issues of historiography and reception,
among other topics. His latest books are Albrecht Dürer and the
Embodiment of Genius: Decorating Museums in the Nineteenth Century
(Penn State Press, 2020), Kunstkammer: Early Modern Art and Curiosity
Cabinets in the Holy Roman Empire (Reaktion Books [London], 2022),
and Albrecht Dürer’s Afterlife (Lund Humphries [London], 2024). He was
articles editor of Renaissance Quarterly and inaugural co-editor of the
Journal of the Historians of Netherlandish Art. Smith served on the
board of directors of the College Art Association, Renaissance Society
of America, Frühe Neuzeit Interdisziplinär, Historians of Netherlandish
Art, and 16th Century Society and Conference. In 2018, he was feted with
a Festschrift entitled Imagery and Ingenuity in Early Modern Europe:
Essays in Honor of Jeffrey Chipps Smith (Brepol

Thompson Lecture - Tutankhamun: In Life, Death and Eternal Afterlife

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-10-18 | Tutankhamun: In Life, Death and Eternal Afterlife, Dr. Chris Naunton

Thanks to the discovery of his tomb in 1922, pharaoh Tutankhamun is one of the most famous figures of the ancient world. Prior to this, only a few scraps of evidence for his existence had survived, suggesting he reigned only for a few years and didn’t achieve very much. The tomb revealed that he came to the throne as a young boy and died a teenager, but he reigned at one of the most interesting times in Egyptian history. What do we know of him now, of
his life and what happened to him in death?

Dr. Chris Naunton is an Egyptologist, writer, broadcaster and author of Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt (2018), Egyptologists’ Notebooks (2020), King Tut Tells All! (2021) and Cleopatra Tells All! (2022). He has presented numerous television documentaries, including The Man Who Discovered Egypt (BBC4, 2012), Ultimate Tut (PBS, 2013), Secrets of King Tut’s Treasures (National Geographic, Disney+, 2018) and Egypt’s Lost Pyramid (Smithsonian Channel, 2019). He was Director (CEO) of the Egypt Exploration Society from 2012 to 2016 and President of the International Association of Egyptologists from 2015 to 2019.

Conversation with a Collector: Paperweights

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-09-25 | Ever thought about starting your own collection? If so, you'll want to join us for this valuable talk, as guest curator Kathryn Sharbaugh and paperweight collector / aficionado Eileen Ellis share their passion for glass art and the fascinating world of connoisseurship.

Kommareddi Family Lecture Series: Rebecca M. Brown

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-09-24 | Kommareddi Family Lecture Series: Rebecca M. Brown: Pictures: Art, Abstraction, and Freedom in 1960s Chennai

SDFLS:Archaeological Evidence of EarlyChristianity: Excavations, EarlyChurches, and Ancient Pilgrims

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-08-20 | Christianity is based on a historical figure,
Jesus. But what evidence is there for
Jesus and the very early Jewish-Christian
communities? Dr. Michael Pytlik will present
archaeological evidence for the early
Christian communities, the life of Jesus,
the house of Peter, and recent research at
the site of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Early pilgrims give us a glimpse of the reality
of these early times.
Dr. Pytlik is Oakland University’s Director of Judaic Studies and
Anthropology. He teaches the Archaeology of Israel and a number
of courses in Judaic Studies and Religious Studies. Since 2009 he
has organized and led groups of OU students to Israel for a tour and
excavation field school. He is interested in the formation of the Israelite
state, the development of the synagogue, Jewish Theology, Hebrew, and
the archaeology of Israel. He is very active in the Jewish community,
and is involved in Christian, Muslim, and Jewish dialogue groups. Pytlik
is also the current faculty adviser for the Jewish Student Organization
on campus and the director
of the Cis Maisel Center
for Judaic Studies and
Community Engagement. He
holds a Doctor of Science in
Jewish Studies from Spertus
College, as well as a masters
in Jewish Studies and a
bachelor’s degree in History.

Sheppy Dog Fund Lecture Sereies: The Art of Death in the City of Light

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-07-22 | Some of the most unusual and creative artistic expressions in Paris are not to be found in its museums, churches, or grand buildings, but instead reside in its cemeteries. Three of its best-known cemeteries—Père Lachaise, Montmartre, and Montparnasse—attract millions of visitors each year, some to pay their respects, while most go to have an unconventional aesthetic experience. This talk will explore the role art plays in beautifying a place of the dead by looking at Père Lachaise Cemetery and the Catacombs. We will contemplate what these places meant in post-Revolutionary France, as well as how we see them through a contemporary lens.

Tracee J. Glab has been Executive Director of the Flint Institute of Arts since 2022. In her previous role as Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, she oversaw more than 100 exhibitions. Glab is the author of Director’s Choice (Scala, 2023) and has managed eighteen publications. This will be Glab’s fourth Sheppy Dog Fund lecture, previously covering such diverse subjects as ancient mosaics in Israel, death symbolism in art, and most recently, crimes of passion in art theft. Glab earned her MA in art history from Wayne State University and BA in art history from University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Kommareddi Family Lecture Series: What’s in a Medium? Photo Performance as Feminist Practice

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-06-11 | What does it mean for an artist to perform the role of the goddess? This
talk examines the work of contemporary Indian artist Pushpamala N.
(b. 1956) by considering the meanings of the medium she most often
chooses for her work: the creation of photographs that center the
artist’s own performance of icons ranging from goddesses to actresses
to criminals. Karin Zitzewitz will trace the emergence of Pushpamala’s
photo-performance practice to its origins in the mid-1990s before
engaging some of her most recent work, including her performance
photographs of Bharat Mata, or Mother India.
Karin Zitzewitz is a specialist in the modern and contemporary art
of South Asia. She is the author of Infrastructure and Form: The Global
Networks of Indian Contemporary Art, 1991–2008 (2022), The Art of
Secularism: The Cultural Politics of Modernist Art in Contemporary
India (2014), and The Perfect Frame: Presenting Indian Art: Stories and
Photographs from the Kekoo Gandhy Collection (2003). She curated
exhibitions by Pakistani artist Naiza Khan (2013) and Indian artist Mithu
Sen (2014) for the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State
University. Her research has been supported by the European Research
Council, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Paul Mellon
Centre for British Art, the American Institute for Indian Studies, and
the Fulbright program. She is a former Chair of the editorial board of
Art Journal and Art Journal OPEN. Zitzewitz is Professor and Chair of
the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of
Maryland, College Park.

Sheppy Dog LectureSeries: Gods, Ghosts, and Spirits in BuddhistArt and Tradition

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-06-04 | The Buddhist world is alive with thesupernatural. Gods, ghosts and spirits, often described as living out the consequences of past actions (good and bad), wander the world imbued with the capacity for either great kindness or terrible wickedness. This talk will examine the hungry ghosts, protective gods, and nature spirits who have haunted Buddhism from its earliest
days in India to the present and examine their often-overlooked
contributions to its development and survival. Examples from art and
literature will be drawn from across Asia.
Robert DeCaroli, Professor of South and Southeast Asian art history
at George Mason University, is the author of Haunting the Buddha:
Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism. His second
book, Image Problems: The Origin and Development of the Buddha’s
Image in Early South Asia, explores the artistic origins of the Buddha’s
image. He has been awarded a Getty Research Institute Fellowship
and The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Research Fellowship.
More recently, he co-curated Encountering the Buddha: Art and
Practice across Asia at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian
Art and co-edited the volume Buddhism and the Senses: A Guide to
the Good and Bad.

Skin & Ink: A World Heritage of Tattooing

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-05-27 | For millennia, astonishingly diverse forms of tattooing have been produced by various cultures across the globe. Some employed tattoos for therapeutic or cosmetic purposes, to mark special life achievements, or to assert social identity. Others marked the body with symbols intended to promote fertility, protect themselves from malevolent spirits, or carry them safely into the afterlife. World traveler, anthropologist, and photographer Dr. Lars Krutak will share his 20-plus year journey to understand how tattoos “make” the people who wear them, part of which he chronicled in his Discovery Channel series Tattoo Hunter, as well as Netflix’s Explained and the forthcoming documentary Treasure of the Rice Terraces, featuring 107-year-old Kalinga master tattooist Apo Whang-Od Oggay of the northern
Philippines. In a richly illustrated talk based on his field research and the accounts of explorers, historians, and anthropologists, he will speak about
tattoos around the world dating from 3000 BCE to the present. He will
explore ancient tattooing traditions and reveal how tattoos exposed individual desires and fears, cultural values, spirituality, and ancestral ties
that were written on the body in ink. Lars Krutak, PhD, is a tattoo
anthropologist, photographer, and writer based in Washington, D.C. He is
a research associate at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Coffee With A Curator: Carved in Wood: Masksof the Pacific Northwest

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-05-15 | Within the indigenous cultures ofthe Pacific Northwest there is a long tradition of artisans carving spiritual objects from wood.
These objects include boxes, totems, figures, and masks that are used within sacred ceremonies. Today, contemporary artists like Henry Hunt, Stan Hunt, and Tom Patterson, are drawing inspiration from their heritage and creating
carved masks similar to what would have been used in traditional festivals or celebrations. This talk by Associate Curator Rachael Holstege will look at several late-20th-century indigenous masks within the FIA’s permanent
collection and how artists have revived the art form.

Sheppy Dog Fund Lecture: Portraying theFantastic: GothicArchitecture inContemporary Cinema

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-05-02 | This illustrated lecture discusses
the current reinvention of Gothic
architecture in the cinematic and digital
worlds of films, series, video games, and
AI. A survey of Gothic structures in cinema and digital media since 2001
shows that Gothic is today a significant part of global visual culture. Like
many other historical phenomena, Gothic has been appropriated and
reimagined by creators motivated by the desire to tell stories and to
turn a profit. The meanings and uses of this imaginary Gothic in many
ways resemble Gothic’s roles in its medieval and earlier revival phases. It
also highlights the continuities between contemporary popular culture
and the historical material on which it draws.
Dr. Markus Cruse is Associate Professor of French at Arizona State
University. His research focuses on the literature and material culture
of the Eurasian Middle Ages. His books The Mongol Archive in Late
Medieval France: Texts, Objects, Encounters, 1221-1422 (Cornell University
Press) and L’iconographie de l’Epistre Othea de Christine de Pizan (coauthor with Gabriella Parussa, Brepols) will appear in 2025.

Sheppy Dog Lucture:Marco Polo’s America:The Medieval Influence on Early Modern Maps of the New World

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-04-30 | One of the most famous books in
the world is a copy of Marco Polo’s
Description of the World annotated by
Christopher Columbus. Although Polo
wrote his account in 1298, it remained an authoritative geographical
source for centuries. Like Columbus, many of those involved in early
modern exploration—from kings to navigators to mapmakers—believed
that the Americas were connected or very near to the immensely
wealthy Asian regions described by Polo. This lecture traces the
evolution of maps of the Americas from the late 15th to the late
16th centuries, with a focus on the ways in which Polo’s Description
shaped expectations about the inhabitants, resources, and size of the
Americas. Polo’s influence lasted for generations, even as exploration,
colonization, and missionary work gave Europeans more accurate
understandings of the Americas.

Sheppy Dog Fund Leacture:FloodedHistory: Underwater Archaeology in the Great Lakes_ Dr. Ashley Lemke

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-04-01 | Dr. Lemke is an Anthropological Archaeologist and Explorers
Club Fellow. Originally from Washington, she received her BA in
Anthropology and Classical Civilizations from the University of
Texas, and her MA and PhD in Anthropology from the University
of Michigan. She is an Associate Professor at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee and former Chair of the Advisory Council
on Underwater Archaeology. Lemke is a leading researcher on
the archaeology of hunter-gatherers. She has worked extensively
on both terrestrial and underwater archaeological projects
from the Lower Paleolithic in Europe to 19th-century Nunamiut
archaeological sites in the Arctic. She is an expert on submerged
ancient sites in the Americas and has researched such sites in the
Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, and Atlantic Ocean. She has directed
excavation projects in Texas and Michigan, as well as underwater
projects in the Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean. She has experience
excavating at numerous archaeological sites in Europe, including
Germany, Spain, Romania, and Serbia. Lemke is the author of two
books, Anthropological Archaeology Underwater (Cambridge 2024)
and The Architecture of Hunting (Texas A&M Press 2022).

Romare Bearden: Artist as Activist and Visionary

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-02-05 | In this talk, DiedraHarris-Kelley, CoDirector of the RomareBearden Foundation
will present the early roots of Bearden’s activism through his writing and cartoons and how his personal experiences informed his larger vision for humanity. She willalso discuss how a younger generation of artists speak to Bearden’s artistic influence. Diedra Harris-Kelley is one of the Co-Directors
of the Romare Bearden Foundation, the nonprofit organization perpetuating the legacy of Romare Bearden. Harris-Kelley is also the niece of
Nanette Bearden who founded the Foundation in1990. Harris-Kelley earned her MFA degree fromUniversity of Michigan. She currently teaches a
seminar course on Romare Bearden at BarnardCollege, and has taught studio art at NYU, ParsonsStudio Program, and for alternative high school
and elementary school programs. She also conducts professional development workshopsand lectures on art. Harris-Kelley was a member
of the curatorial team of Jazz at Lincoln Center(2009–2012); and is the author of “Revisiting Romare Bearden’s Art of Improvisation,” published
in Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies (Columbia University, 2004); and “My Life in Movement: Inheriting the Dancing Body” (Scholar &
Feminist Online, Issue 19.1, Summer 2023). HarrisKelley’s artwork has been published on book covers and was last shown in a solo exhibition at
the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Arts in New York.

An Epitome of Times andFashions: Clothing and Society in Hawthorne’s America

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-01-23 | Nathaniel Hawthorne relied
heavily on depictions of clothing
to establish character, historical
period, class distinctions,
morality, and other narrative
elements in his fiction. His most
famous character, Hester Prynne
of the Scarlet Letter, is after all,
a “seamstress.” From The House of the Seven
Gables to The Blithedale Romance, and in many
of his stories, clothing and its social meanings
take on important significance. This lecture takes
a close look at Hawthorne’s depictions of dress
and connects them to visual representations
of clothing in paintings, a gravestone, and early
advertisements for ready-to-wear clothing in
“department stores,”—an innovation in American
consumer society of the 1840s. Artists discussed
in the talk include John Singleton Copley, Francis
Alexander, Edward G. Malbone, and others,
including unnamed illustrators and gravestone
artists. The talk will also place Hawthorne in the
context of his contemporaries, especially Henry
David Thoreau.
Dr. Babak Elahi is the Dean of the College of
Sciences and Liberal Arts at Kettering University
where he also teaches writing, literature, and
leadership. Prior to joining Kettering, Elahi was
a professor of communication and literature
in the College of Liberal Arts at Rochester
Institute of Technology, where he also served
as Associate Dean from 2011 to 2016. He holds a
PhD in American literature from the University
of Rochester. His scholarship spans the areas of
American literature and popular culture, Iranian
diasporic life writing, modern Iranian fiction, and
documentary film. He is also a blues singer and
guitar player performing occasionally at local
bars and cafés in and around Flint.

Artist + Curator Talk: Cliff Joseph and The Power of Art

Flint Institute of Arts 2025-01-21 | In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the exhibition Cliff Joseph and The Power of Art (currently on view in the FIA's African American and African Diaspora gallery), Associate Curator Rachael Holstege will talk about artist and activist Cliff Joseph, how he was inspired by Dr. King, and how through his art Joseph pushed for social change.

SHEPPY DOG FUND LECTURE: CARAVAGGIO IN ROME... AND AMERICA

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-12-17 | In a painting career shorter than two decades, Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio (1571–1610), had a profound impact on the history of Western European art. He rejected the prevailing idealizing style encountered in the paintings of many of his contemporaries, instead meshing a bold naturalism with a theatricality that accentuates the dramatic intensity of his compositions. His works engage the viewer with their meticulous execution and often subtle details, a result of Caravaggio’s at-the-time radical method of painting directly from posed models and objects within his studio, rather than working from preparatory drawings. This lecture by Dr. Lawrence Nichols will consider the painter’s years in Rome, from his arrival there in the early 1590s to his hasty flight from the Eternal City in the spring of 1606 necessitated by the quick tempered, sword-loving painter having killed a longtime adversary. The presentation will also offer a consideration of all works by Caravaggio in America.

Bio: Lawrence W. Nichols is curator emeritus at the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA). He received his BA from Dartmouth College and PhD from Columbia University. He is a specialist in northern Baroque painting, and has curated numerous exhibitions at the TMA including The Brilliance of Caravaggio: Four Paintings in Focus, Frans Hals Portraits, A Family Reunion, Manet: Portraying Life, and Van Gogh: Fields. Nichols continues to serve on the Old Master paintings vetting committee of The European Fine Arts Fairs held in Maastricht each March. In addition, he serves on the Art Advisory Panel of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. He chaired the International Indemnity Program Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2016 to 2020.

Absinthe: A Curious Spirit

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-11-26 | Absinthe inspires a sense of mystery and sinister allure like no other spirit. It fueled a generation and inspired writers, poets, and visual artists of the Belle Époque before being banned. But, what is absinthe? Why was it banned? Did it cause madness and ruin? How did it become legal again, and is the new absinthe authentic? Join Dr. Justin Sledge for an exploration of the cultural impact of this curious spirit.

Justin Sledge was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He received an MA in Mysticism and Esoteric Philosophy from the University of Amsterdam and an MA and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Memphis. He has written on the intersection of metaphysics and politics often focusing on “non-canon” figures in the Western intellectual tradition. Dr. Sledge currently teaches philosophy and religious studies throughout the metro Detroit area.

Romancing the Stone: Gendering Jewels in Colonial and Post-Colonial India | Dr. Siddhartha V. Shah

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-10-24 | Jewels have long played an essential role in fashioning the auspicious Indian body, as evidenced even in the earliest art excavated on the subcontinent. In the Indian context, the ideal body—full of vigor and beauty—is always the body adorned and it is, in particular, the royal male body that is most heavily ornamented in jewels. The importance of jewels in styling monarchical power in India was a point of severe criticism and judgment from the British during their extended rule over the Subcontinent while they also appropriated the practice for their own imperial aims, especially in the final decades of the British Raj. This talk examines the importance of fashion and jewelry in styling imperial power, with an emphasis on the famed Koh-i-Noor diamond that is now a part of the British Crown Jewels. The presentation examines the display and treatment of the legendary jewel since it was 'given' to Queen Victoria, the role of jewelry in shaping colonial fantasies about a weak and subordinate Indian masculinity, and ongoing considerations about what jewelry says about power, value, and identity.

Bio:

Siddhartha V. Shah is the John Wieland 1958 Director of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. He was previously the Director of Education and Civic Engagement and Curator of South Asian Art at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, which is home to one of the leading collections of modern Indian art outside the subcontinent. Dr. Shah earned his BA in art history from Johns Hopkins University, an MA in Hindu philosophy and Jungian psychoanalysis from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and a PhD in art history from Columbia University.  His academic and curatorial projects have been featured in publications ranging from The Times of India and India Today, to The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and Psychology Today.

THOMPSON LECTURE: The Art of the Public Portrait: Painting Royalty and Cultural Icons

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-10-19 | Join renowned portrait artist Ralph Heimans as he defines portraiture as a 3-way dialogue between artist, sitter, and the public. His large-scale paintings of European royalty projects power through imagery and its evolving dynamic in the present day. He places figures in complex spatial arrangements, underpinned by the creative use of geometry, reflection, and perspective. His technical approach pays homage to the 17th-century masters of chiaroscuro, using exquisite effects of light, which illuminate the inner world of his subjects. He will also discuss his use of composition and the development of narratives to engage public discourse in the portraiture of individuals that define the sitter’s cultural legacy.

Members Preview - Pick of the Litter: Cats & Dogs in Art

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-09-27 | Sarah Kohn & Rachael Holstege, Lecturers

When did cats and dogs begin to appear in art? What type of symbolism do these animals represent? How has their representation changed over time? Highlighting works of art from the FIA’s collection, Director and Curator of Collections and Exhibitions Sarah Kohn and Associate Curator Rachael Holstege will discuss the representation of cats and dogs in art throughout history.

The Thefts of the Mona Lisa by Dr. Noah Charney, Guest Lecturer

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-07-25 | Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait, the Mona Lisa, is without doubt the world’s most famous painting. It achieved its fame not only because it is a remarkable example of Renaissance portraiture, created by an acclaimed artistic and scientific genius, but because of its criminal history. The Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911 by an Italian man that was under the mistaken belief that the Mona Lisa had been stolen during the Napoleonic era, and he wished to take back for Italy one of his country’s greatest treasures. His successful theft of the painting from the Louvre, the farcical manhunt that followed, and the subsequent trial in Florence were highly publicized, sparking international media attention, and catapulting an already admired painting into stratospheric heights of fame. Charney’s lecture reveals the art and criminal history of the Mona Lisa.

Brushed Aside: The Untold Story of Women in Art by Dr. Noah Charney, Guest Lecturer

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-07-25 | How many female artists can you name? Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marina Abramovic? What about female curators, critics, patrons, collectors, muses, models, and art influencers? Dr. Charney will discuss the role, influence, and empowerment of women through art—including women artists, but going beyond those who have taken up a brush or a chisel. He will show that not only have there been scores of great women artists throughout history, but that great women have shaped the story of art.

Paradise in the Parlor: At Home with the Fowler Family

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-06-22 | he group portrait of Delia, Milo, and Gertrude Fowler, the three youngest children of John Nash Fowler, has long been a popular painting at the Flint Institute of Arts.
According to family
tradition, the painting was created around 1854 in Clayton, New York, before the family relocated to Detroit, Michigan. The three children sit in a garden setting with an imaginary Edenic landscape behind them. Some of the portrait’s iconography suggests that it is a post-mortem portrait of the youngest child pictured, with the landscape referencing heaven. However, there is no archival record of a
death in the family around the
time the portrait was painted.
This presentation will discuss the
history of the portrait and the
Fowler family and consider the
painting in the context of their
evangelical, Methodist faith. The
portrait expressed moralizing
lessons and values and can be
understood in relation to domestic
religious practices in mid-
nineteenth-century America.
Janine Yorimoto Boldt is
the Collection Reinstallation
Project Associate at the Chazen
Museum of Art at the University
of Wisconsin—Madison, where she
is involved in planning the comprehensive reinstallation of the permanent collection galleries. Previously, she was the Associate Curator of American Art at the Chazen and a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at the American Philosophical Society. She holds a PhD in American Studies from William & Mary and specializes in early American visual culture. Recent curatorial projects include re:mancipation, Resource & Ruin: Wisconsin’s Enduring Landscape, and Dr. Franklin, Citizen Scientist. Her scholarship on colonial art and portraiture has been published
by Winterthur Portfolio, American Art, Panorama, and the DAR Museum. She is the researcher behind Colonial Virginia Portraits, a digital project produced in collaboration with the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture.

KOMMAREDDI FAMILY LECTURE SERIES Adorning The Self: Symbolism and Personal Identity

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-05-18 | In a museum setting, divorced
from their ethnographic
context and isolated from
their cultural milieu, jewels
are exhibited as just beautiful
objects. However, they can form a unique visual legacy and metaphoric expression of dynamic societies, past histories, and design sensibilities. This lecture will delve into the rich tapestry of Indian history and culture through the lens of personal adornment. It will trace the intricate relationship between jewelry, attire, and the expression of personal identity, social hierarchy, and spiritual belief systems that have, since time immemorial, flourished on the Indian subcontinent.
Dr. Usha R. Balakrishnan is a cultural capital consultant and a highly regarded scholar of Indian art and culture. As a preeminent historian of Indian jewelry, she has been the former Indian representative for Sotheby’s, served on the expert committee of the Kerala Museum, and has worked for the Brooklyn Museum, New York, where she pioneered and steered the museum’s
Mughal Jewelery project. She is presently Chief Curator of the World Diamond Museum.
A prolific author, some of Usha’s vast range
of titles are Dance of the Peacock, a definitive volume on the 5,000-year history of Indian jewelry; Jewels of the Nizams, the first publication on this renowned royal collection; Carnatic & Deccan: Bejewelled Past, and Munnu: Vision & Passion. She has curated, edited and contributed to Diamonds Across Time, published by the World Diamond Museum. A forthcoming title includes Silver &
Gold: Visions of Arcadia, The Amrapali Collection of Indian Jewellery. Her work with museums
has led her to curate key projects at Indian and international museums, as well as contribute essays to several museum exhibition catalogues.

Theater Stories of Ancient West Mexican Art

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-05-14 | Dr. Kristi Butterwick will discuss the stories that ancient West Mexican art tells. From the portraits of leaders, family, and kinship, the ancient people created their universe in beautiful clay sculptures, showing relationships and feasting celebrations. While the ancient people do not possess a name such as the Maya, Aztec or Olmec, their ceramic sculptures are among the most astounding and detailed pieces in the Mesoamerican art lexicon. Taken as a whole, the collection from the family of Ted Weiner gifted to The Flint Institute of Art is a stunning capture of life around 2,000 years ago in the environs of Tequila and Colima volcanoes in western Mexico.

Kristi Butterwick Martens received her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1998. Her thesis was about Days of the Dead in ancient West Mexico. Her work has focused on ancient West Mexico since then. Dr. Butterwick’s research has resulted in publications and talks for the Chicago Art Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, among major American museums. Currently she is researching the origins of agave production and pulque feasts in ancient West Mexico, based on art, archaeology and biology.

Sheppy Dog Lecture Fund Series: Of the Making of Many Books There Is No End

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-05-08 | Artist Lynne Avadenka will give an illustrated lecture about her artist’s books and prints and her collaborations with other book artists. She will share examples of book artists’ works that explore notions of identity.
“Avadenka’s work does many things at once, working across languages, motifs, history, and graphic balance to create something timeless and personal, adding her voice to the canon that she seeks to amplify with each letter she sets.” – Sarah Rose Sharp, writing about Avadenka’s work
in Hyperallergic
Avadenka is an American artist and printmaker, creating multimedia work informed by the Jewish experience and explorations of text and image. Avadenka has been active
in the Detroit arts community since receiving her MFA from Wayne State University in 1981. In 2013 she was named director of Signal-Return, a Detroit nonprofit community letterpress print shop and arts center. Avadenka received a Kresge Fellowship in 2009, the inaugural year of the program, and has received individual artist grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Arts and Culture Council. Avadenka’s work is exhibited and collected internationally, including the British Library, London; Detroit Institute of Arts; Flint Institute of Arts; The Jewish Museum, New York; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; New York Public Library; Meermano Museum, The Hague, The Netherlands; The Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

COFFEE WITH A CURATOR | Rinaldo and Armida Tapestries in Three Acts

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-04-17 | Executive Director Tracee Glab will take a closer look at the 17th-century tapestries in the Viola E. Bray Renaissance Gallery by examining three areas: Act I: From Paris to Flint, reliving the story of the tapestries' 6,293 mile journey; Act II: Sleeping with the Enemy, exploring the story and characters of Rinaldo and Armida; and Act III: Beyond Warp and Weft, examining the symbols in the tapestries.

UM-Flint Artist Talk by Rashaun Rucker

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-03-23 | Artist Rashaun Rucker give a talk about his process and works.

The Zodiac Fountain and the Hunt for Stolen Chinese Art

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-02-20 | n 2009, the Grand Palais in Paris held the “auction of a lifetime”— the sale of the collection of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. While over 200 million dollars worth of art was sold, a Chinese collector made news headlines when he won a pair of large bronze statues—the head of a rat and a rabbit—but publicly refused to pay, stating that China should not have to buy back its stolen cultural heritage. The heads were part of statues belonging to the Zodiac Clock Fountain at the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, looted by the French and British in 1860 before the palace was destroyed as part of the Second Opium War.

Dr. Noah Charney will discuss the value of art, both financial and cultural, using this case study as an example. Dr. Charney hosted an acclaimed BBC series on just this subject, and will give a live online talk exclusively for the Sheppy Dog Fund Lecture that examines the heists that may be linked to the repatriation, through theft, of stolen treasures.

Dr. Noah Charney is an internationally best-selling author of more than a dozen books, translated in fourteen languages. He is a professor of art history specializing in art crime, and has taught for Yale University, Brown University, American University of Rome, and University of Ljubljana. Charney is founder of the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art. He writes regularly for major magazines and newspapers, including The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Observer, and The Art Newspaper. In 2022, he presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary, China’s Stolen Treasures, which is the basis for this lecture. He lives in Slovenia with his wife, children and their hairless dog, Hubert van Eyck.

In Motion: The Art of Alexander Calder

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-02-17 | In Motion: The Art of Alexander Calder

By: Director and Curator of Collections and Exhibitions Sarah Kohn

Alexander Calder redefined sculpture by introducing the element of movement with his suspended works called “mobiles.” In addition to these abstract, kinetic sculptures, he is known for more traditional forms of art like works on paper and paintings. This talk by Director and Curator of Collections and Exhibitions Sarah Kohn will explore Calder’s career and his fascination with geometric forms, bold colors, and movement both literal and symbolic.

17th Annual Community Gala 2024

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-01-31 | Artist Mario Moore gives a talk on some of the influences and life experiences that helped shape his art.

God Kings and Deified Emperors in Ancient Societies

Flint Institute of Arts 2024-01-31 | Dr. Susan Wood will discuss Egyptian kingship, and how the concept came into the Greek world—when an oracle of Egypt acclaimed Alexander the Great as “son of Amun Ra” and the political maneuvering that ensued. Wood’s talk will also cover the increasingly elaborate rituals around the deification of Roman emperors and wives of emperors after their deaths.

Susan Wood is a former Professor of Art History at Oakland University, and received her degrees from Bryn Mawr College and Columbia University (Ph.D.). Her areas of specialization are Roman art and archaeology, numismatics, and French Neo-classical painting. She is the Archaeological Institute of America’s 2009–10 Metcalf Lecturer. Her publications include Imperial Women: A Study in Public Images (Leiden: Brill 2000 and 2001).

Coffee with a Curator: The Eight and a New American Art

Flint Institute of Arts 2023-12-21 | In conjunction with the exhibition American Realism: Visions of America 1900–1950, this talk by Associate Curator Rachael Holstege will discuss the artists who made up the group known as “The Eight.” Frustrated by the restrictions of academic art in the early 20th century, eight artists joined together to mount their own ground-breaking exhibition. The collective members, their art, and their disruption of the status-quo would forever change the face of American art.

The Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem: History, Tradition, Sacred Image

Flint Institute of Arts 2023-12-13 | The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is the traditional location of Christ’s crucifixion and burial. It is the most sacred of sites in Christianity. In this presentation, Dr. Michael Pytlik will explore the ancient site and how it developed into this most fascinating sacred location. The talk will cover recent archaeological research and contemporary pilgrims’ accounts that place the site in historical and sacred context. Join us for an exploration of the Holy Sepulchre, a site intricately linked to the history of Jerusalem: a sacred site within a sacred city.

Dr. Pytlik, Director of Judaic Studies and Anthropology at Oakland University, teaches the Archaeology of Israel and a number of courses in Judaic Studies and Religious Studies. Since 2009, he has organized and led groups of OU students to Israel for tours and excavation field school. He is interested in the formation of the Israelite state, the development of the synagogue, Jewish Theology, Hebrew, and the archaeology of Israel. Dr. Pytlik is active in the Jewish community and is involved in Christian and Muslim Jewish dialogue groups. He is also the current faculty adviser for the Jewish Student Organization on campus and the director of the Cis Maisel Center for Judaic Studies and Community Engagement. He holds a Doctor of Science in Jewish Studies from Spertus College, as well as a master’s degree in Jewish Studies and a bachelor’s degree in History.

The Early Modern Kunstkammer: Collecting What the World Has to Offer

Flint Institute of Arts 2023-11-25 | A critical new chapter in the history of collecting arose in the second half of the 16th century along with the advent of European global trade. The Kunstkammer, a cabinet of art and curiosities, was a highly specialized exhibition room or suite of chambers filled with thousands of diverse and sometimes shocking objects reflecting the bounty of nature and human creativity. Contents could range from a cherry pit carved with dozens of faces to an intricate rhinoceros horndrinking cup, to utilitarian scientific instruments to the exotic bounty of objects gathered from Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Whether as a setting for personal contemplation or a manifestation of the wealth and prestige of its owners, these protomuseums dazzled visitors.

Until his retirement in August 2023, Dr. Jeffrey Chipps Smith was professor and Kay Fortson Chair in European Art at the University of Texas, Austin. He specializes in Northern European art from 1400 to 1700, especially that of Germany and the Netherlands. Smith’s publications focus on Nuremberg and its culture, Albrecht Dürer, German sculpture, the Jesuits, Northern Renaissance art, patronage, and issues of historiography and reception, among other topics. His latest books are Albrecht Dürer and the Embodiment of Genius: Decorating Museums in the Nineteenth Century (Penn State Press, 2020) and Kunstkammer: Early Modern Art and Curiosity Cabinets in the Holy Roman Empire (Reaktion Books, 2022). Smith was a Mercator Fellow at the University of Hamburg from May through July this year.

Artist Talk with John Dempsey | Landscape Painting & Memory

Flint Institute of Arts 2023-11-15 | Why painting? Why landscape painting? Artist John Dempsey will discuss how he attempts to create a visual equivalent to our experience of place in his contemporary landscape paintings. He will also discuss the subject matter and timeline of the work featured in Fabrication in Transit.

Time to Meet the Maker? Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Art

Flint Institute of Arts 2023-10-17 | This year’s lecture is a discussion between writer, curator, and scholar Dr. Aaron Rosen and renowned new media artist Michael Takeo Magruder.

Is artificial intelligence (AI) the latest horizon of conceptual art, or something fundamentally new? If someone instructs an AI system to produce a work of art, does that make them an artist? Will traditional ideas of creativity and inspiration change or indeed survive in an AI-saturated world? How might AI impact the art market, from production to authentication to sales? These are just some of the thought-provoking art historical, philosophical, and economic issues, which Rosen and Magruder will touch upon in their public discussion. Aiming to inform and excite even those with limited technological knowledge, Rosen and Magruder offer an accessible discussion punctuated by various visual examples, including never-before-seen works by Magruder himself.

Aaron Rosen, is a writer, curator, and non-profit leader. He is the Executive Director of the Clemente Course in the Humanities and Visiting Professor at King’s College London. He served as Director of the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary and began his career as a fellow at Yale, Oxford, and Columbia Universities. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge. His many books include What Would Jesus See? and Art and Religion in the 21st Century.

Michael Takeo Magruder is a visual artist and researcher based in the UK whose work uses Information Age technologies and systems to examine our networked, media-rich world. His projects have been showcased in over 300 exhibitions in 35 countries, and he has served as artist in residence at major international institutions like the British Library and The National Archives (UK). He has been funded by bodies including Arts Council England, the Andy Warhol Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts (US). He graduated with a BSc in biology from the University of Virginia and is represented by Gazelli Art House in London.

The Thompson Lecture was established in 1991 by Dr. and Mrs. Jack W. Thompson to enable the Flint Institute of Arts to present a distinguished speaker in the arts or humanities each year. The Thompson Lecture is one of the Institute’s few members only events and was established, in part, to attract new members to the FIA.

Coffee w/ a Curator | Femme Fatale, Femme Forte, or Both? Judith asa Symbol of Seduction or Strength

Flint Institute of Arts 2023-10-09 | This talk will explore the painting Judith and Holofernes by Gregorio Lazzarini. Director and Curator of Collections and Exhibitions Sarah Kohn will recount the biblical Book of Judith and compare Lazzarini’s painting in the FIA’s collection with other artworks illustrating the same topic. She will explore the symbolism of Judith as a strong woman (femme forte), a dangerous woman (femme fatale), both, or something entirely different.

Sculptural Abundance and Visual Prestige: Hoysala Temples in Karnataka, India

Flint Institute of Arts 2023-09-26 | In this lecture, join Dr. Katherine E. Kasdorf to explore the visual intricacies of Hoysala temples in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Built primarily during the 12th and 13th centuries, when the Hoysala dynasty flourished in the region, the temples encompass a remarkable variety of innovative architectural and sculptural forms. As we will see, in addition to serving the Hindu and Jain communities for whom they were built, these extraordinary buildings brought prestige to their cities and towns.

Dr. Kasdorf is Associate Curator of Arts of Asia and the Islamic World at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Curatorial projects include new permanent-collection galleries at the DIA and the Walters Art Museum, where she previously held a Wieler-Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowship, and the Walters exhibition Ferocious Beauty: Wrathful Deities from Tibet and Nepal. She has published articles on South Asian temple sculpture and architecture, and on architectural reuse in Hindu and Islamic contexts, among other subjects. She received her PhD in South Asian art history from Columbia University, completing a dissertation on temples of the Hoysala capital in Halebidu, Karnataka, southern India.

Discussion with Bishop Randall

Flint Institute of Arts 2023-09-21 | Bishop Randall, one of the artists included in Torched: Glass Pipes, has been working in glass for 22 years and is deeply connected to history and place. Randall, who is also a poet and storyteller, will talk with artist and philanthropist Drew Kups about his career, inspiration, and the story of pipes from human’s early relationship with fire to the experiences and stories of contemporary pipemakers.

Bishop Randall currently lives in Yuba watershed along the San Juan Ridge, California, where he has immersed himself in the history and cultural inheritance of his environment. In addition to working in glass and being a student of Zen, Randall tells stories through poetry. His upcoming book of poems called Animal Droppings has been described as, “a resurgence of collective thought that the place itself has been waiting to be retold. The ending of a time, forgotten tools, medicine, songs of healing, the vision of what might come next, through the lens of everyday life.”

Drew Kups has been working in glass since 1997. He is the co-founder of the glass collective Urban Pheasant and the co-founder of The Michigan Glass Project. Since 2012, The Michigan Glass Project has hosted an annual festival highlighting pipe artists to raise funds for Art Road Detroit, a nonprofit that brings art classes back to schools. To date, the organization has raised over $500,000 and has assisted in reinstating art curricula for more than 2,200 children throughout Detroit.