Please join us in Cambridge on Tuesday, April 30th at 6pm for a lecture by Sanchita Balachandran, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum.
In 1933, Rutherford John Gettens, conservation scientist at the Fogg Art Museum, wrote a letter to his colleague Dr. S. Paramasivan to ask about the "peculiar problems" he faced in the conservation of archaeological objects at the Madras Government Museum, in India. Who, he wondered, has the right to preserve museum collections, and why? Whose histories are preserved and whose are erased or omitted through the preservation process? Though nearly 90 years have passed since this correspondence, some of these same issues continue to trouble museums around the world. This lecture will consider what role the scientific, physical, and cultural practices of preservation play in what (and who) lives, dies, or is brought back to life in the museum. Location: Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge MA 02138. The lecture will take place in Menschel Hall, on the Lower Level. Please enter the museums via the entrance on Broadway; doors will open at 5:30pm. Admission is free, but seating is limited. Tickets will be distributed beginning at 5:30pm at the Broadway entrance. One ticket per person. Complimentary parking available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street, Cambridge. Support for the lecture is provided by the M. Victor Leventritt Fund, which was established through the generosity of the wife, children, and friends of the late M. Victor Leventritt, Harvard Class of 1935. The purpose of the fund is to present outstanding scholars of the history and theory of art to the Harvard and Greater Boston communities. Julie Wertz Beal Family Postgraduate Fellow in Conservation Science 617-384-8717 [email protected] Harvard Art Museums 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 www.harvardartmuseums.org ****** Unsubscribe by sending a message to [email protected] Searchable archives: http://cool.conservation-us.org/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/
