Charlotte Townsend-Gault    
Professor Emeritus, Art History, University of British Columbia; Honorary Professor, Anthropology, University College London

Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw and Haida coppers were broken in front of Canada’s parliament in 2016. A mended canoe is prominently displayed in the Museum of Anthropology. Both the break and the mend, in different registers, restore and redirect the long local histories of specific cultural techniques. Read more.

Arseny Zhilyaev
Artist and Museologist, Moscow and Venice

The twentieth century is considered to be the century of artistic innovation and creative exploration, with French surrealism and Russian avant-garde having a decisive influence on artists working during this time. However, what we usually mean by these terms is limited to a set of artists-stars and the trajectories of their creative formation. Read more.

Susan Weber
Founder and Director, Bard Graduate Center

Minton & Co., Britain’s leading ceramics manufacturer, introduced majolica to the public at London’s Great Exhibition in 1851. This innovative ware, with its vigorous modelling and vibrant glazes inspired by Italian and French Renaissance ceramics, caused a veritable sensation amongst critics and connoisseurs alike. Read more.

Sophie Pitman (BGC MA ’13)
Postdoctoral Researcher, Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland

The early modern period is often characterized as an era of sumptuous luxury, with rich velvets, shining pearls, and gold ornament. Extreme fashions such as highly starched linen ruffs, slashed satin doublets, and elaborately underpropped skirts have come to define the visual appeal of the Renaissance. But so few garments are preserved in collections, and sources about clothes (whether fashionable or quotidian) are spread across a vast range of sources, many of which focus on the elites. Read more.