This symposium in connection with the RCCAM special exhibition Heritage: Shaping Past, Present, Future brings together a range of guest speakers who explore how artists, architects, and craftspersons, represent and reproduce cultural heritage across the ages and through diverse media, which may reference, reinforce, or challenge perceptions of society’s past, present and future. Drawing on content within the exhibition and their own research, speakers will demonstrate how artworks are far from being static entities - they play an important role in mediating tradition and socio-cultural change. Participants will speak on a range of topics, ranging from ancient myths, to the rediscovery of antiquity, the removal and preservation of statues, architectural legacies of Miami University and memorialization of Freedom Summer, contemporary West African cultural heritage, the revitalization of Miami Tribal heritage, and the role of AI and digital art in interpreting heritage.
DAY 1— THU, OCT 5 | 2:30-5:30 PM
1:30 PM: Registration and exhibition viewing
2:30 PM: Introduction and overview
2:45 PM: Myth and Rediscovery
Kathleen Lynch (University of Cincinnati, Department of Classics)
The Heritage of Storytelling and Mythmaking: Connecting Past to Present
Jeb Card (Miami University, Department of Anthropology)
Myth, Disruption and Heritage in Mesoamerica
Andrew Casper (Miami University, Department of Art)
Ancient Heritage Remembered: Representations of the Ruins of Rome
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4:30 PM: Keynote - Monumental Change: Recent Responses to Controversial Sculptures in America
Erin L. Thompson (John Jay College, City University of New York) in discussion with Mary Rogero
(Miami University Department of Architecture and Interior Design). Followed by reception.
