Explore the past, understand the present, and inspire the future.

Image title: Rothschild lamp Medium: Bronze, on a later wood base Date: ca. 1510–20 Source: The Met Collection   “ People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built. ” — Eleanor Roosevelt ‘This Is Not a God’: Deconstructing Colonial Museum Displays Through Indigenous Eyes   Introduction: The Gaze That Froze the Sacred Walk into any major ethnographic museum and you’ll find glass-encased artifacts often stripped of Read more…

Image title: The Crucifixion; The Last Judgment Medium: Oil on canvas, transferred from wood Date: ca. 1436–38 Source: The Met Collection   “ The most important thing is transforming our minds, for a new way of thinking, a new outlook: we should strive to develop a new inner world. ” — Dalai Lama Pixel Prophets: How Neural Networks Are Inventing a New Visual Language   Introduction: A New Era of Artistic Expression In darkened studios Read more…

Image title: Heroic Landscape with Rainbow Medium: Oil on canvas Date: 1824 Source: The Met Collection   “ When watching after yourself, you watch after others. When watching after others, you watch after yourself. ” — The Buddha After Eden: Eco-Criticism in Contemporary Landscape Painting   Introduction – The Green Mirror Refracted From the earliest cave paintings to the sweeping vistas of Romanticism, the landscape has served as a canvas for humanity’s shifting relationship with Read more…

Image title: A Vase of Flowers Medium: Oil on wood Date: 1716 Source: The Met Collection   “ Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. ” — Seneca the Younger ‘Sculpt Me an Algorithm’: 3D Printing Meets Classical Proportion Systems   Introduction: Old Ratios, New Realities In a luminous convergence of the ancient and the futuristic, contemporary sculptors are turning to 3D printing and Renaissance-era mathematical proportions to redefine humanity’s pursuit of ideal form. Read more…

Image title: Deity figure Medium: Pyroxene jadeite Date: 200–600 CE Source: The Met Collection   “ All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. ” — Pablo Picasso Mythology Rewired: How Sci-Fi Artists are Redrawing Ancient Gods   Introduction: The Fusion of Cosmos and Pantheon From Zeus wielding a lightning bolt to Anubis guarding the underworld, mythology has long provided humanity with archetypes that explain the cosmos Read more…

Image title: Charity Medium: Oil on canvas Date: ca. 1630 Source: The Met Collection   “ In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. ” — William Blake Political Flesh: Sculpting Revolution in Postcolonial Africa   Introduction: The Chisel of Sovereignty In the turbulent wake of Africa’s decolonization, the continent’s newly independent nations embarked on an urgent quest for self-definition. While constitutions were drafted and flags unfurled, another kind of language entered the Read more…