Norfolk Society of Arts Lecture Series Explores Art and Artists

NORFOLK, Va. – (August 2011) – The Norfolk Society of Arts is pleased to announce this year’s fascinating array of speakers and topics. Each lecture begins at 11 a.m. in the Museum’s Kaufman Theatre, following a coffee reception at 10:30 a.m. in Huber Court. Admission is free to the public, with preferred seating for Norfolk Society of Arts members.

Wednesday, September 28
The Phillips Collection: 90 Years of New
Dorothy Kosinski, director, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Discover how one family’s personal collection of paintings became America’s first museum of modern art in 1921, then grew into one of the world’s great collections of impressionist and modern American and European art.

Kosinski became the director of The Phillips Collection in April 2008. She is the former senior curator of painting and sculpture at the Dallas Museum of Art and served earlier as an independent curator for the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, the Kunstmuseum Basel, and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Dr. Kosinski has written for numerous catalogues, magazines and books. She received her masters and Ph.D. degrees from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and a bachelor of arts from Yale University.

Wednesday, October 26, (The Mabel Brown Lecture)
Gauguin’s Myths
Mary Morton, curator and head, Department of French Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

From biblical literature to Buddhist belief, from Oceanic legends to contemporary French poetry, learn how Paul Gauguin incorporated his quest for spirituality and his search for paradise lost (and found) into his imaginative art.

Wednesday, November 30
‘Oriental Lowestoft’ to ‘Chinese Export’:  Trends in Collecting Chinese Export Porcelain
Christina Prescott-Walker, senior vice president – Chinese Works of Art, European Ceramics, and Chinese Export Porcelain, Sotheby’s, New York

Wednesday, January 25
Embrace: 17 Artists Take Over the Libeskind Building
Christoph Heinrich, director, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colo.

Wednesday, February 22
Public vs. Private: The Patronage of Madame de Pompadour in 18th-Century France
Alden Rand Gordon, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.

Wednesday, March 28
Conservation Today at the Venerable Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Gianfranco Pocobene, head of conservation, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Mass.

Tuesday, April 17
Crystal Bridges: An American Art Museum for the 21st Century   
Don Bacigalupi, director, Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, Ark.

The Norfolk Society of Arts promotes and enhances the cultural life of the Hampton Roads community through lectures, special events, and financial support to the Chrysler Museum. Membership is open to all current Museum Members. For more information about the Society or NSA membership, please contact Didi Granger at (757) 853-0221 or at diedremg@aol.com.

The Chrysler Museum of Art is one of America’s most distinguished mid-sized art museums with a world-class collection of more than 30,000 objects, including one of the great glass collections in America. The Museum is located at 245 West Olney Road in Norfolk and is open Wednesdays, 10 a.m. -9 p.m.; Thursdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sundays, noon-5 p.m. The Chrysler is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, as well as major holidays. Admission to the Museum’s collection is free. For exhibitions, programming and special events, visit chrysler.org or call 757-664-6200.