Excavations and Exhibitions: Digging into Archeology and the Art Museum

Howe Library and the Hood Museum of Art are collaborating on this year’s national summer reading theme, "Unearth a Story," with particular reference to paleontology and archaeology. The Howe has chosen to read Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds, by Thomas Halliday. In connection with this theme, Ashley Offill, Curator of Collections, Hood Museum of Art, will explore the instrumental role of archeology in forming many early museum collections, and the legacies and lessons of archaeological objects in the modern museum. This talk is also in dialogue with the Hood Museum exhibitions Stone, Sand, and Clay: Connecting Cultures in the Ancient Mediterranean and From Mastodon to Mosaic: Building an Academic Art Collection in America. This program is hybrid: attend in person or register for the Zoom link here. Ashley is an art historian who specializes in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art, with a focus on sculpture and architecture associated with the cult of saints and relics. Ashley comes to the Hood Museum from the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, where she most recently was the coordinator for administrative and academic projects. Ashley completed her PhD in art history at the University of Kansas, where she also earned her MA. She holds a BA in English and art history from Texas Christian University. In both her museum practice and her higher-education teaching experience, she centers works of art as sites of inquiry, interpretation, and connection in order to foster engagement with a variety of audiences.