Met Director to Conclude Norfolk Society of Arts Lecture Season

NORFOLK, Va. – (March 2011) – Norfolk Society of Arts wraps up its 2010-11 lecture series with an informative program featuring Thomas P. Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The April 5 lecture begins at 11 a.m. in the Chrysler Museum of Art Kaufman Theatre, following a coffee reception at 10:30 a.m. in Huber Court. All lectures are free and open to the general public, with preferred seating for NSA members. A special luncheon and silent auction to benefit the Chrysler Museum will follow this end-of-season lecture.

Campbell’s topic is Discovering History: The Met and the Ancient World. There has been much discussion over the past several years about the Metropolitan Museum’s collections of antiquities, and many questions have been raised about where objects have come from and, perhaps more vigorously, where they belong today. The debate surrounding repatriation is multifaceted, with elements that remain deeply polarized. On the one hand there are advocates who favor returning all objects to their home countries, and there are those with the belief that objects have been — and still are — best preserved and shared in the museums where they are on view, educating the public, and where scholarship has contributed greatly to our understanding of them.

His lecture aims to give the audience a sense of the profound history that lies behind the Metropolitan’s scholarship and collecting in this area, including the museum’s direct partnership with source countries to excavate collaboratively at some of the most important archaeological sites in the world.

Campbell had worked in the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts for 14 years, rising steadily through the curatorial ranks as assistant curator (1995-97), associate curator (1997-2003), and curator (2003 to December 2008) to director in 2009. During this time, he conceived and organized the major exhibitions Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence (2002), and Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor (New York, 2007; Palacio Real, Madrid, spring 2008), both of which incorporated drawings, paintings, and prints, as well as tapestries, and received widespread acclaim. The 2002 exhibition was named “Exhibition of the Year” by Apollo magazine and its catalogue won the Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Award (College Art Association) for distinguished exhibition catalogue in the history of art (2003).

Tickets for the benefit luncheon and silent auction are $65 and may be purchased from Eleanor Harris at (757) 423-8939. Last year’s benefit raised $17,500 for the Chrysler Museum, which used the funds to support transportation for Norfolk Public School tours for fourth-grade students and to underwrite digital resources management software, per the NSA Members’ request.

The Norfolk Society of Arts promotes and enhances the cultural life of the South Hampton Roads community through lectures, special events and financial support to the Chrysler Museum of Art. 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 permanent collection is free. Special exhibitions may have an admission fee. For exhibitions, programming and special events, visit chrysler.org or call 757-664-6200.