Call for Papers | Material Ecologies: Boston U. Graduate Symposium
From the Call for Papers:
Material Ecologies: Connecting Care, Nature, and Identity
The 42nd Annual Mary L. Cornille Boston University Graduate Symposium on the History of Art & Architecture
Boston University and MFA Boston, 10–11 April 2026
Coordinated by Allegra Davis and Jailei Maas
Proposals due by 15 January 2026
The graduate students of the Boston University History of Art & Architecture Department invite proposals for papers that explore themes of art and the environment, engaging questions of materiality, craft, and alternative ecologies, for the 42nd anniversary of the Mary L. Cornille (GRS ‘87) Boston University Graduate Symposium on the History of Art & Architecture.
In recent decades, as critical approaches to the environmental humanities have experienced rapid expansion, ecocritical art histories have examined aesthetic engagements with the natural world in light of extraction, pollution, and climate change, often reconsidering hierarchies imposed on the environment and artists’ relationships with natural subjects and materials. Ecofeminism, meanwhile, as both a social movement and a theoretical framework, has specifically linked human domination of nature with patriarchal structures, calling for the deconstruction of both gender and species-based divisions and oppressions. Taking cues from these movements, Material Ecologies will center materiality and feminist critique as lenses for environmental inquiry in art history, investigating how artists depict, consider, and collaborate with more-than-human beings to refigure humanity’s own relationships with the world around us. In this symposium, we aim to break down boundaries and hierarchies not only between humanity and nature, but also among academic and artistic disciplines, geopolitical borders, and material categories. How have artists used both traditional and innovative materials and methods to address themes of the environment, climate, and identity? Where do ecological, scientific, cultural, and artistic practices overlap and intersect, and what insights are produced as a result? What new ways of creating and being can we access by resisting the urge to insulate and taxonomize?
Possible subjects include but are by no means limited to: artistic collaborations with nature; the expanded field of sculpture; ecofeminism and decolonialism; queer and feminist craft practices; salvaged and repurposed materials; Black Feminist, Indigenous, and queer ecologies; and kinships between art and science.
Submissions should align with the goal of this symposium to center BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, feminist, and counter-colonial voices, fostering a space for these perspectives to resonate within the academy and beyond. We encourage interdisciplinary approaches, bringing together art history, architectural history, environmental humanities, cultural studies, literature, and more. We welcome submissions from graduate students at all stages and from any area of study in the global history of art and architecture. Papers must be original and unpublished. Please email as a single Word document: title, abstract (250 words or less), and CV to artsymp@bu.edu. The deadline for submissions is 15 January 2026. Selected speakers will be notified in early February. Presentations will be 15 minutes in length, followed by a question-and-answer session. The symposium will be held at the Boston University campus and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on April 10 and 11, 2026.
This event is generously sponsored by Mary L. Cornille (GRS ’87). For more information, please visit our website or email artsymp@bu.edu.
Exhibition | Landscapes by British Women Artists, 1760–1860
Opening soon at The Courtauld:
A View of One’s Own: Landscapes by British Women Artists, 1760–1860
The Courtauld Gallery, London, 28 January 2026 — 20 May 2026
Curated by Rachel Sloan
A View of One’s Own showcases landscape drawings and watercolours by British women artists working between 1760 and 1860 whose work represents a growing area of The Courtauld’s collection. These artists range from highly accomplished amateurs to those ambitious for more formal recognition. They have remained mostly unknown, and their works largely unpublished.
When the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, its members included two women; yet there would not be another female academician until Dame Laura Knight was elected in 1936. Despite this institutional exclusion, women artists in Britain continued to train, practice, and exhibit during this period, particularly in the field of landscape watercolours. This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue shed new light on these artists, working within a heavily male-dominated era in the arts. Some of the artists achieved recognition during their lifetimes while others’ work remained private. The ten artists featured include Harriet Lister and Lady Mary Lowther, who were among the first to depict the Lake District; Amelia Long, Lady Farnborough, one of the first British artists to travel to France following the Napoleonic Wars; and Elizabeth Batty, whose works appearing in the show were rediscovered only a few years ago.
Artists: Harriet Lister, Mary Lowther, Mary Mitford, Elizabeth Susan Percy, Mary Smirke, Eliza Gore; Fanny Blake, Amelia Long, Elizabeth Batty, and Richenda Gurney.
Rachel Sloan, ed., A View of One’s Own: Landscapes by British Women Artists, 1760–1860 (London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2026), 72 pages, ISBN: 978-1913645977, £20. With contributions by Susan Owens, Rachel Sloan, and Paris Spies-Gans.
Rachel Sloan is Associate Curator for Works on Paper at The Courtauld Gallery. Paris A. Spies-Gans is a historian and art historian, with a focus on gender and culture in Britain and France during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries; she is currently a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Susan Owens, formerly Curator of Paintings at the V&A, is an independent scholar; she has published widely on 19th-century British art and culture and has a particular interest in drawing and landscape.
Exhibition | The Barber in London
Now on view at The Courtauld:
The Barber in London: Highlights from a Remarkable Collection
The Courtauld Gallery, London, 23 May 2025 — 28 Jun 2026
Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Portrait of Countess Golovine, ca. 1800, oil on canvas, 84 × 67 cm (The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, 80.1).
A selection of exceptional paintings from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, is on view at The Courtauld Gallery for an extended display from May 2025, while the Barber undergoes a major refurbishment project. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts was founded as a university gallery in 1932, the same year as The Courtauld Institute of Art and its collection. Both were intended to encourage the study and public appreciation of art. Today, the Barber and The Courtauld Gallery are home to two of the finest collections of European art in the country.
Highlights from the collection at the Barber include important works such as Frans Hals’s Portrait of a Man Holding a Skull (c. 1610–14), Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun’s Portrait of Countess Golovina (1797–1800), Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s The Blue Bower (1865), and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s Woman in a Garden (1890). In addition, a handful of paintings with strong links to The Courtauld’s own collection will be embedded in the permanent collection displays, among them Joshua Reynolds’s monumental double portrait Maria Marow Gideon and Her Brother William (1786–87).
The Prado Acquires Its First Sculpture by Luisa Roldán
Luisa Roldán, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, 1691, polychrome terracotta and wood
(Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado)
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From the press release (18 December 2025) . . .
The Museo del Prado has taken an important step in reshaping the story of Spanish Baroque art with the acquisition of The Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Luisa Roldán, known as La Roldana. Signed and dated 1691, the sculpture marks the first time one of Roldán’s works enters the Prado’s collection—despite her name having long appeared on the museum’s façade alongside Spain’s great masters.
Luisa Roldán (1652–1706) was a remarkable figure in her time: the first woman to be appointed sculptor to the Spanish court, serving under both Charles II and Philip V. Yet, like many women artists of her era, her work has remained underrepresented in major museum collections. This newly acquired sculpture helps to correct that absence and brings her artistry into direct dialogue with the Prado’s holdings of Baroque painting and sculpture.
The work, made of polychrome terracotta and wood, depicts the Holy Family pausing to rest during their flight into Egypt. At first glance, the scene feels intimate and serene, but a closer look reveals Roldán’s extraordinary technical skill. The modeling is delicate and expressive, the gestures natural and carefully observed. The polychromy—exceptionally well preserved—adds warmth and immediacy, while details such as the tree framing the composition give the scene a quiet narrative depth.
The sculpture comes from the renowned Güell collection, long considered a reference point for Spanish sculpture, and was recently acquired at an Abalarte auction for €275,000. Purchased by Spain’s Ministry of Culture and assigned to the Prado, the piece now joins a collection that includes major devotional works by artists such as Gregorio Fernández, Pedro de Mena, Juan de Mesa, and Luis Salvador Carmona. Its arrival strengthens the Prado’s exploration of the relationship between sculpture and painting in Baroque Spain; Roldán’s work resonates with contemporaries such as Luca Giordano, whose paintings are already represented in the museum, highlighting shared interests in movement, emotion, and theatricality across artistic media.
Beyond its artistic importance, the acquisition carries symbolic weight. By welcoming Roldán’s sculpture into its galleries, the Museo del Prado publicly acknowledges the central role women artists played in shaping Spain’s artistic heritage. It is not simply a matter of adding one work to the collection, but of expanding the narrative of art history to better reflect its true complexity. With The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Luisa Roldan finally takes her place inside the Prado—not just in name, but in substance—offering visitors a fuller, richer view of the Spanish Baroque and the artists who defined it.
Notre Dame’s Raclin Murphy Museum of Art Announces New Gift
From the press release (8 December 2025) . . .
Virgin Immaculata, 1730–33, Meissen Porcelain Manufactory, hard-paste porcelain, 8 inches high (South Bend: Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Virginia A. Marten Endowment for Decorative Art 2022.014).
The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame announces a major gift from the Marten Charitable Foundation through the stewardship of Gini Marten Hupfer, Foundation leader and member of the Museum’s Advisory Council. The tandem naming and endowment gift was inspired by the legacy of Virginia Marten (1925–2022), a long-standing, former member of the Advisory Council and devoted Museum supporter.
The gift will confer the name ‘Marten Family Gallery’ on the current east gallery of European Art before 1700. Works by Vicenzo Spisanelli, Claude Lorrain, Giuseppe Ribera, and Bartolomeo Veneto, among others, are featured in the gallery. With naming the gallery, a permanent feature, centered in the gallery, will be installed; to be called the ‘Marian Court’, it will be a permanent display featuring Marian imagery from the Raclin Murphy’s extensive holdings to honor Virginia Marten’s particular devotion to Mary, the Mother of Christ, and her love of art. Currently, images based on Marian iconography, ranging from paintings by Francesco Francia to Hans Memling to Giorgio Vasari, are highlighted in this space.
Complementing the named gallery, the second part of the gift establishes the Marten Family Endowment for Marian Art. The new endowment will provide support for research, conservation, acquisitions, interpretation, and programming to advance scholarship and appreciation of the traditions of Marian Art. A unique endowment to the institution, it underscores both the Museum’s and the University’s commitment to research and inquiry.
“This gift is meant to honor my sweet mother, Virginia Marten’s love for both Notre Dame, the Blessed Mother, and her passion for the arts. We believe we found the perfect space in which to do just that at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. I know my mother would be thrilled and humbled by this,” states Gini Marten Hupfer.
“The support of the Marten Family, beginning with Virginia and steadfastly followed by her children, is truly remarkable and inspiring,” states Joseph Antenucci Becherer, Director and Curator of Sculpture. “The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art and the University of Notre Dame are uniquely positioned to facilitate and celebrate the study and appreciation of Marian imagery, thus truly honoring the legacy of Virginia and her family. Their gift and endowment mark an exceptional moment when love, devotion, and scholarship converge.”
Exhibition | A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music
Left: Therese Schwartze, A Choir of Foundling Girls, ca. 1910 (London: Foundling Museum). Center: Mikhail Karikis, We Are Together Because, 2025, at Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (Photo by Pedro Pina), Right: Foundling Hospital, The Chapel, detail, Microcosm of London, pl. 37, published 1808, hand-colored etching and aquatint (London: Foundling Museum).
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Originally associated with Easter more than Christmas, Handel’s Messiah did have its American premier on 25 December in 1818 at Boston’s Boylston Hall. This exhibition at The Foundling unpacks the legacy of its triumphal ‘Hallelujah Chorus’:
A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music
Foundling Museum, London, 2 October 2025 — 29 March 2026
Explore the life-affirming power of music through the lens of Handel’s iconic ‘Hallelujah Chorus’.
Looking at the exhilarating experience and enduring impact of the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ in the past and present, A Grand Chorus explores, across all four floors of the Museum, the profound effect that music can have on both listeners and performers, encouraging visitors to think about their own physical and emotional connections with music, either through encounters with the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ or reflecting on music that has transformed and enriched their own lives.
A Grand Chorus brings together musical scores, librettos, and musical instruments as well as paintings, photographs, audio, video, personal testimony, and other archival material spanning three centuries. The exhibition takes a fresh look at the origins and enduring popularity of the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’, as well as reflecting on the impact of music on the lives of former Foundlings and care-experienced individuals. Originally composed as part of his famous Messiah oratorio, Handel later incorporated the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ into an anthem he created specially for the Foundling Hospital that premiered in 1749 to help raise money for the charitable institution.
The exhibition also showcases a major sound and video installation by Mikhail Karikis, We Are Together Because… (2025), the first time the work has been presented in the UK. Featuring a powerful anthem for a new generation, Karikis’s work can be imagined as a contemporary counterpart to the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’.
More information is available here»
New Book | Goya: The Disasters of War
From Rizzoli and Distributed Art Publishers:
Francisco de Goya, Goya: The Disasters of War (Madrid: La Fábrica, 2025), 176 pages, ISBN: 978-8410024632, $60.
Based on the original 1863 edition, this presentation of Goya’s 80 etchings decries the consequences of war through his bleak, gruesome, and unflinching imagery.
Following his tenure as court painter for the Spanish royal family, Francisco de Goya’s art took on darker subjects and a more expressive style, especially during the Peninsular War (1808–14). Much can be gleaned from the fraught and visceral work of this period, including his series of etchings known as The Disasters of War. Concerned about the state of the world as much as his own failing health, Goya spent 10 years on what he personally titled Fatal Consequences of Spain’s Bloody War with Bonaparte, and Other Emphatic Caprices. Starvation, sickness, looting, assault, torture, execution—each image confronts the shattered lives of everyday soldiers and civilians, accompanied by brief, ambiguous captions such as “Y no hay remedio” (“And there is no remedy”) and “Yo lo vi” (“This I saw”).
This clothbound book faithfully reproduces the first edition of the complete set of 80 works which was published in 1863, 35 years after Goya’s death. It features exquisite printing quality on paper that closely resembles the texture of the original engravings, in a similar format and scale. War is still a condition of human existence today; Goya’s etchings are timeless for their vehement denunciation of its atrocities committed by all combatants, regardless of their national affiliations.
Born in Fuendetodos, Spain, Francisco de Goya (1746–1828) trained in Zaragoza and later moved to Madrid. In 1789 he was appointed as a court painter by Charles IV. Considered “the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns,” Goya blended elements of Romanticism with a deeply personal and often critical vision of society.
Installation | Revolution!
Paul Revere Jr., after Henry Pelham, The Boston Massacre, or, The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street, Boston on 5 March 1770 by a party of the 29th Regiment, detail, 1770, hand-colored engraving and etching, second state, sheet: 11 × 9.5 inches (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1910, 10.125.103).
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Opening soon at The Met:
Revolution!
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 19 January — 6 August 2026
Curated by Sylvia Yount, Constance McPhee, and Wolf Burchard
This special installation marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the founding document of the United States of America. Works drawn from many different areas of The Met offer a wide view of the roots, course, and aftermath of the Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—from early conflicts between colonists and Indigenous peoples and the 1765 Stamp Act imposed by the British government on its North American colonies to George Washington’s voluntary retirement, in 1797, from his two-term presidency.
Rarely seen prints reveal the transatlantic circulation of news about the struggle for independence during a fractious political era. This window into the era’s print culture highlights the global dimensions of the rebellion, the contested ideas about liberty that shaped it, and its consequential outcomes. Also on view are American and European works of art that depict a range of significant individuals. These include iconic contributors to the Declaration of Independence John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson; patriots and presidents such as Paul Revere and George Washington; the Wampanoag chief Metacomet, whose conflicts with early British colonists laid the groundwork for revolution; Mohawk leader Thayendanegea, who allied with the British in an effort to retain Indigenous sovereignty; and African American poet Phillis Wheatley, who raised her voice against an expansive tyranny in her call for emancipation. Together, these artworks acknowledge multiple complex and intertwined histories that continue to resonate in the United States and beyond, some two and half centuries later.
Revolution! is curated by Sylvia Yount, Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing; Constance McPhee, Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints; and Wolf Burchard, Curator, Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts.
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With this additional information from the press release:
The American Wing will also feature in its Alexandria Ballroom (Gallery 719), an historical interior focused on George Washington and his complex legacy—from fall 2025 through early August 2026—with artist Titus Kaphar’s 2016 ‘tar’ portraits of Ona Judge and William Lee, both enslaved members of the Washington family’s households, on loan from private collections. In addition, from March through summer 2026, a recent acquisition by Carla Hemlock (Mohawk) will be on view in dialogue with Rembrandt Peale’s portrait of Washington in the foyer of the Art of Native America installation (Gallery 746 South).
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The Art of the American Revolution: A Conversation with Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein
Thursday, 29 January 2026, 6pm
The Museum will present a panel discussion on the “Art of Revolution” with filmmakers Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein, co-directors with David Schmidt of their new documentary, The American Revolution; historians Philip Deloria and Jane Kamensky; and art historian Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, along with a screening of excerpts from the PBS series, produced exclusively for The Met, highlighting the creative process of visual storytelling. The conversation will provide an opportunity to reflect on the continued relevance of historical imagery and the power of art to explore the varied stories of the country’s founding.
Exhibition | Ringleaders of Rebellion: Charleston in Revolt, 1775–1783
Cartridge Box, one of the best-preserved examples of its kind from the Revolutionary War
(Charleston Museum)
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From the press release for the exhibition:
Ringleaders of Rebellion: Charleston in Revolt, 1775–1783
Charleston Museum, 31 January — 20 September 2026
To mark 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Charleston Museum will present a special exhibition in the Historic Textiles Gallery; Ringleaders of Rebellion: Charleston in Revolt, 1775–1783 provides an in-depth overview of the Lowcountry’s role in the Revolutionary War, featuring objects from the Museum’s collections alongside special pieces on loan during certain months of the display.
Shoes that belonged to Eliza Lucas Pinckney (Charleston Museum).
Among the latter will be a broadside of the Declaration of Independence, one of the first copies of the document printed in Charleston after news of its adoption reached the city in August 1776. The document, loaned from the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, will be shown May 29 to August 30. Another remarkable piece is the logbook of the Royal Navy’s HMS Bristol, the flagship of Commodore Peter Parker during the Battle of Sullivan’s Island. This record of the ship’s daily activities (on view from June 15 to September 20) comes from the Royal Museums of Greenwich and will be a key addition to the exhibition as 2026 also represents the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Sullivan’s Island. In addition, the show will feature archaeological pieces from battlefields around the state including Camden, Ninety Six, Fort Motte, and Fort Watson. From May 23 to July 26, the Museum will present Eliza Lucas Pinckney’s silk gown, along with her recently conserved shoes and sash (supported by the fundraising efforts of the Eliza Lucas Pinckney chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution).
Several new acquisitions will also be featured, including a ‘Brown Bess’ musket (the primary infantry weapon of the British army during the Revolutionary War), an officer’s camp bed from the era, a pair of period leather horseman’s breeches, and a William Lee bracket clock. William Lee, a Charleston clockmaker, was one of the paroled prisoners whom the British exiled to St. Augustine, Florida in 1780 for clandestinely continuing rebellious activities. British officers referred to them as the “Ringleaders of Rebellion.”
Funding for the Ringleaders exhibit was made available by SC250, the Therblig Foundation, the Post and Courier Foundation, and Henry and Sylvia Yaschik Foundation.
Collecting250 Educator Guides Available from The Decorative Arts Trust
From the press release:
The Decorative Arts Trust is excited to announce the publication of four complimentary educator guides related to Collecting250.org, a free, public resource that commemorates the United States Semiquincentennial with a celebration of 250 historic objects from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The online collection includes meaningful and impactful objects that represent independence, identity, and community, which were submitted by over 140 museums and historic associations from across the country. This resource demonstrates how objects can tell the story of America.
The Trust’s new educator guides feature complimentary lessons and worksheets to teach art and history through the exploration of objects on Collecting250. A team of experienced educators provided lesson plans, worksheets, and extension ideas aligned with the National Standards for Visual Arts Education and the Common Core Standards. These exciting and interactive lessons are designed to encourage students at the middle and high school levels to view objects—whether historic or more modern—in a whole new way.
The educator guides focus on four themes: function, collecting, story, and traditions. The Functions of Objects: An American Collection asks students to examine various objects in Collecting250 and determine their function through the question, “What job does this object do?” Students present a proposal (in trading card form) for the acquisition of an object, antique or present-day, that they believe should be included in the collection. Students’ trading cards can be shared in a school display in recognition of the Semiquincentennial.
For Collecting: Uncovering America through Its Objects, students explore reasons why humans engage in collecting. They share their knowledge of collections and role-play as private collectors. Then students curate a series of objects from Collecting250 for their own museum spaces, with peers discussing which collection is the most historically significant, the most expensive, etc. Students also investigate an object and create a ‘missing’ poster.
The Weaving a Storyline across 250 Years guide has students investigating various objects in Collecting250 and considering the underlying history of those objects through the question, “What story does this object have to share?” Students create a historical fiction narrative that threads the stories of various objects from the collection into a storyboard that interweaves personal student stories with the stories told by objects found in the collection.
Objects and Traditions: History Revealed guides students to consider Collecting250 objects through the lens of tradition. Students discuss traditions that are important in their families and communities, and then students examine objects and discuss how they might have been made in association with traditions. As students investigate objects, they discuss how cultural beliefs, values, and artistic expression influence the making of an object.
The Decorative Arts Trust would like to thank Dr. Marilyn Stewart, Professor Emerita of Art Education at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, for coordinating the team that developed these educator guides. The Trust learned of Dr. Stewart and her talented colleagues through the fantastic resources they have developed for Craft in America. Collecting250 will be available for the next few years, so these lessons will be applicable for the 2026–27 and 2027–28 school years as well. Visit Collecting250.org to explore these new resources.
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