Mapping Trade and Connecting Cultures

This course will utilize New York City collections to show how the movement of luxury materials, made possible by nomads, was essential to the production of the canonical art works we now admire in museums. We will begin by studying nomadic cultures in the classroom and at the AMNH to better understand why tents are one of the oldest forms of architectural expression throughout the world. We then move to address how recent exhibitions have highlighted an interconnected globe in the premodern period, and what revelations these shows have brought to changing our perspective on how we make art into history and consider future directions in visualizing heretofore silent journeys. Students will get to know NYC collections, meet curators and conservators, and spend the entire semester with one object, which they will research in depth throughout the semester.