The Silk Road
The Ancient Spice and Silk Trade Routes Have Been Given New Life
Tuesday, January 11, 2022, 10:30am
Signature Event Space
Dru Gladney, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Anthropology, Pomona College
The ancient spice and silk trade routes have been given new life with China’s modern Silk Road initiative. This talk will dicuss the rise, fall and rise again of these important trade routes, which have intermittently linked Europe with China for the last two millennia.
Gold from the Silk Road
Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 10:30am
Signature Event Space
Jason Sun, Ph.D., Brook Russell Astor Curator of Chinese Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The frequent trade and contact over the Silk Road brought about an unprecedented growth of gold and silver vessels and jewelry before and during the Tang dynasty. Their shapes, decorations and manufacturing techniques, all inspired by the art of the Persian world, had a lasting impact on Chinese decorative arts in the following centuries.
Film Presentation
The Silk Road: Beijing to the Black Sea
Tuesday, January 25, 2022, 10:30am
Signature Event Space
The Asian Art and History series presents a screening of the film The Silk Road: Beijing to the Black Sea.
The Maritime Silk Road in the Late-First to Mid-Second Millennium A.D.
Tuesday, February 1, 2022, 10:30am
Lecture in John and Jeanne Rowe Performance and Learning Center, lunch in Signature Event Space
Derek Heng, Ph.D., Professor, Northern Arizona State University
The Maritime Silk Road, which connected Maritime Asia through to the East Coast of Africa, witnessed intense and vibrant interactions for at least the last two thousand years. This talk will provide an overview of these exchanges that occurred during the late-first to mid-second millennium A.D. and showcase the rich diversity of sources presently available to aid our understanding of this important global system of exchange.
From Samarkand to Xi’an: Sogdians on the Silk Road
Tuesday, February 8, 2022, 10:30am
Lecture in John and Jeanne Rowe Performance and Learning Center, lunch in Signature Event Space
Judith Lerner, Ph.D., art historian
An East Iranian people who lived in what is today Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, the Sogdians are best known for their mercantile activities along the “Silk Roads.” Their caravans and trading communities across Central Asia into China abetted the intense intercultural exchanges between East and West during the fifth to eigth centuries when Sogdiana flourished.
Zoroastrian and Manichaean Arts of the Silk Road
Tuesday, February 15, 2022, 10:30am
Lecture in John and Jeanne Rowe Performance and Learning Center, lunch in Signature Event Space
Zsuzsanna Gulácsi, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Asian Studies, and Comparative Religious Studies at Northern Arizona University
Dr. Zsuzsanna Gulasci of North Arizona University presents a lecture on Zoroastrian and Manichaean images of the afterlife portrayed on stone sarcophagi and painted banners. The lecture explores the visual culture of death rituals during medieval times documented among Sogdian and Uyghur communities living in their Central Asian homelands and, as foreigners, in the capital cities of China.
The Caves of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China’s Silk Road
Tuesday, February 22, 2022, 10:30am
Lecture in John and Jeanne Rowe Performance and Learning Center, lunch in Signature Event Space
Mimi Gardner Gates, Ph.D., Director Emeritus of the Seattle Museum of Art and co-chair of the Dunhuang Foundation US
Mimi Gardner Gates presents a lecture exploring the Cave Temples of Dunhuang, located on the Silk Roads in northwest China. Spanning 1,000 years, the magnificent wall painting and sculpture in these grottoes, and the contents of a hidden cave rediscovered in 1900, are among the earliest and finest Buddhist works of art in China.
Silk Roads to Mongolia
Tuesday, March 1, 2022, 10:30am
Lecture in John and Jeanne Rowe Performance and Learning Center, lunch in Signature Event Space
Nancy Steinhardt, Ph.D., Professor of East Asian Art and Curator of Chinese Art, University of Pennsylvania
The routes to Mongolia are not as well-defined as those across Eurasia, but silk did come to Mongolia, along with metalwork, subjects in murals, and architecture from the last centuries BCE through the 18thcentury. This lecture focuses on discoveries in tombs of the seventh through ninth centuries, and it will introduce major discoveries with strong connections to China from earlier and later times.
A professionally administered negative COVID-19 rapid antigen or PCR test, along with a valid matching photo ID, is required for all visitors 12 and older. In lieu of a negative COVID-19 test, voluntary proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19, along with a valid matching photo ID, may be presented. Masks are encouraged, and they are required for children between the ages of 2 and 11 unless a negative COVID-19 test or voluntary proof of being fully vaccinated (for children ages 5-11 eligible for vaccination) is presented on their behalf. Certain artists and ensembles may require masks. For more information, please visit our COVID-19 Protocols.