Upcoming Art History Events
American Landscapes: Meditations on Art and Art Museums in a Changing World
This lecture, presented from the perspective of an art museum director and curator, will offer reflections upon the evolving role of American art and art museums within the dynamic “landscape” of American society and culture over the past four decades. The talk will be presented in three parts. The first will explore established and newer interpretations of the concept of the “American landscape,” based upon essays and theories published in the 2023 book, American Landscapes: Meditations on Art and Literature in a Changing World (edited by Ann J. Abadie and J. Richard Gruber). The second will offer related observations based upon the speaker’s professional experiences in art museums in Memphis, Wichita, Augusta, New Orleans, and Asheville during these years. And finally, the talk will conclude with a look at some of the new challenges impacting American art and art museums in the years from 2020 to 2025.
Mapping and Modeling Duarte de Armas’ ‘Book of Fortresses’(1509-1510)
This lecture will introduce the audience to a unique collection of drawings and plans of fortresses and fortified towns along Portugal’s border with Spain that was created by a Portuguese squire named Duarte de Armas in 1509-1510. While the bound collection is a remarkably complete source of information about 55 sites along the Portuguese-Spanish border in the early 16th century, it also frequently defies spatial comprehension, especially for modern viewers. Dr. Triplett will discuss how a combination of site visits, and digital-spatial research methods have helped to reveal Duarte de Armas’ modes of viewing and rendering places, while also unearthing new research questions about early modern cartography, fortified architecture, and border-making.
Symbiosis: Art and Ecologies in Global Perspectives
This year’s symposium, titled will take place on November 7–8, 2025. On November 7, Dr. Sugata Ray, Associate Professor in History of Art and South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, will deliver a keynote lecture. On November 8, graduate students from KU and other universities will present their research in four thematic panels: Space, Violence and Memory, Agency, and Decoloniality.
Imaq: Maritime Making in Inuit Art Histories
Imaq, the sea, has long gifted abundance to Inuit through the sacrifice of seals, whales, walruses, and other animal relatives. Offering sustenance, clothing, architecture, and technology, marine mammals animated all aspects of Inuit culture. This lecture examines how artists in Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) registered shifting relations with the sea and marine animals as the onset of colonialism in the eighteenth century entangled Kalaallit Inuit with the wider Atlantic world.
Travel, Tourism, and the Transmission of Knowledge in and around Japan
Opened on July 31, 2025, this exhibition was curated by students in the Japanese art history seminar “Manuscripts, Maps, and Illustrated Books.” In addition, a special event in the gallery on Wednesday, September 3, 2025 (3:30-4:45) will feature mini presentations on selected works by each seminar student. The exhibit will remain open through January 9, 2026.
The exhibition is at the Spencer Research Library.
Fall 2025 Events Schedule
Travel, Tourism, and the Transmission of Knowledge in and around Japan
The exhibition is at the Spencer Research Library.
Imaq: Maritime Making in Inuit Art Histories
Bart Pushaw, PhD
Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Wednesday, November 19, 2025 @ 5:30 pm in SMA 211
2025 Franklin D. Murphy Distinguished Alumni Lecturer: J. Richard Gruber
Lecture: American Landscapes: Meditations on Art and Art Museums in a Changing World
Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025 @ 5:30 pm in SMA 211
Fall 2025 Events Schedule (con't)
Mapping and Modeling Duarte de Armas’ ‘Book of Fortresses’(1509-1510)
Ed Triplett, PhD
Assistant Professor of the Practice, Art, Art History and Visual Studies, Duke University
Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025 @ 5:30 pm in SMA 211
Symbiosis: Art and Ecologies in Global Perspectives
November 7 -8, 2025
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Sugata Ray, University of California, Berkeley
Spring 2025 Events Schedule
Spring 2025 Lecture Series: Intersections of Identity: Expression, Exchange, and Hybridity
Sydney Pursel, February 25, 2025, Spencer Museum of Art, room 211
Nathan Stobaugh, March 13, 2025 7pm live streamed on YouTube
Megan Wanttie, April 15, 2025 7pm live streamed on YouTube
Hyeok Hweon "H.H." Kang
Washington University in St. Louis
February 24, 2025 @ 2:30 pm
via Zoom
https://kansas.zoom.us/j/8328235171
Meeting ID: 832 823 5171 (no password)
De-Nin Lee
Department of Visual & Media Arts, Emerson College
March 27, 2025 @ 5:30 pm
Spencer Museum of Art, room 211
More details soon
Fall 2024 Events Schedule
Peter Sturman, Fall 2024 Franklin D. Murphy Professor and Lecturer
Thursday, September 19, 2024
5:30 pm
Spencer Museum of Art, Marilyn Stokstad Lecture Hall (RM 211*)
Learning Lessons: Reflections on a Life in Academia
Ziskind Professor of East Asian Studies and Art; Chair of East Asian Studies, Colby College
Monday, September 30, 2024
5:30 pm
Spencer Museum of Art, Marilyn Stokstad Lecture Hall (RM 211*)
In the Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan
Professor, Japanese Art, Art History and Archaeology University of Maryland
Thursday, November 7, 2024
5:30 pm
Spencer Museum of Art, Marilyn Stokstad Lecture Hall (RM 211*)
The Spatial Dimensions of Talent
Sunday, November 16, 2024
2:00 pm
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art