“Continuities of Reuse in Contemporary Art, Museums, and Egyptology”

Dr. Rachel Kreiter (Curator, Vanderbilt University Art Gallery)
An image of a gallery featuring 3 ancient Egyptian sculptures and a work of contemporary neon art. The contemporary work is a large neon sign that reads "All Art Has Been Contemporary."
State Museum of Egyptian Art. Munich, Germany.
Event Date & Time
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Event Location
1210 Heller Hall

271 19th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55455

About the Lecture:

This talk will explore how ancient Egypt’s museumification and assimilation into contemporary art are facets of a much-longer pattern of appropriation broadly and object reuse specifically. Since the turn of the millennium, Egyptology has slowly begun to metamorphosize, heralded by new disciplinary critiques, historiographies of the field, and histories of the institutionalization and dissemination of ancient Egypt especially through the museum, a narrative that aligns with the so-called birth of the museum itself. Yet as public perceptions of the museum shift and the museum’s cultural and social functions have been increasingly scrutinized, curators and other museum agents have turned to contemporary art to leverage the meaning and value of historic collections. Egyptian collections and departments, both outliers to museology (in some senses) and emblematic of the museum (in others), are inconsistent participants in these projects. Regardless, an emergent curatorial trend raises questions about its effectiveness, but also its relationship to how ancient Egypt is understood and constructed. 

About the Speaker:

Rachel P. Kreiter is the curator of the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art. For VUMA, they have curated Gloss: A Measured Response to Recent Video Art (2024) and are co-curating Studentship (2026-7); their research interests concern the art of ancient Egypt and its broader interconnections, especially with (but not limited to) contemporary art and in museums. They hold an MFA in curating from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a doctorate in art history from Emory University.

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This event is part of the Exploring Assumptions Series and is cosponsored by The Department of Classical & Near Eastern Religions & Cultures. For more info: https://futureofthepastlab.com/

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