I am honored to report that I will deliver an online talk titled “Visual Illiteracy: How Museums Neglect and Distort Jewish and Catholic Material Culture” on January 17, from 7-8:30 p.m. Chicago time at the Catholic Theological Union.
Those who are interested can learn more about the talk, and register, via this link. My understanding is that it is being recorded and will be available afterward, in which case I will share that with readers when it is available.
Here is the description:
In recent years, many art museums have sought to identify and attend better to audiences that they have historically neglected, and in August 2022, the International Council of Museums adopted a definition of “museum” which stresses fostering diversity and sustainability and operating and communicating “ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities.” As well intentioned as museum leaders have been, however, they have treated sacred Jewish and Catholic art and artifacts inappropriately. At best, they have ignored opportunities to illuminate and explicate the beauty of those traditions and the objects they hold dear, and at worst, they have passed on the opportunity to caution against persecution of Jews and Catholics and have even wittingly or otherwise made decisions that slander and persecute those populations. This talk draws upon two decades of journalistic reporting on religious art in museums, both stateside and overseas.
A lot of what I will share will sound familiar to premium subscribers of this newsletter, while a lot will be new even to that group. For more about CTU, see here.