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Two women wearing traditional embroidered clothing in yellow and turquoise cotton with colorful textile art background
Talk / Lecture

Vital Matters: Expanding the Interpretive Record

October 16, 2024 | 4:00PM - 6:00PM

IN PERSON

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Join us for the launch of the new Fowler digital initiative “Vital Matters / Art, Devotion, Practice.” This project brings together academic knowledge produced in museums and universities with the expertise of spiritually-based leaders, artists, and community organizers. Together, their insights shed light not only on the materiality of belief but also on vital matters of today: public health, the environment, and education. Enjoy conversations with artists, academics, activists, and curators who endeavor to reinterpret museum collections in the digital age. This event will be moderated by Amy Landau, director of education and interpretation and director of Vital Matters, and Francesca Albrezzi, manager and research specialist in the Office of Advanced Research Computing and director of digital development for Vital Matters. Reception to follow. 

Amy Landau is director of education and interpretation at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, where she oversees programs, educational initiatives, and gallery interpretation. Landau previously served as director of curatorial affairs and curator of Islamic and South & Southeast Asian art at the Walters Art Museum from 2009 to 2019. She received her Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of Oxford in Islamic Art and Archaeology.

Francesca Albrezzi is an art historian, curator, and digital humanist. She works as a digital research specialist and manager of the GIS and Visualization Research Technology Group at UCLA’s Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC) and teaches for the Digital Humanities program. She researches digitally immersive technologies used in GLAM organizations.

Image: Diana Negrín da Silva (left). José Benítez Sánchez, Untitled; 2005, acrylic yarn, beeswax, wood; Fowler Museum at UCLA X2013.12.1; Gift of Ronald Lanyi (center). Cyndy García-Weyandt (right)

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