CULTURAL LEGACIES
Instructor:  Dr. Brian E. McConnell
(New LLS Faculty Member)

Course Description: World heritage and cultural patrimony are buzzwords in the media today, as public and private concerns focus on the preservation and presentation of archaeological finds, art collections, and the places that were important in history.  There is no question that such legacies constitute important resources on a world-wide scale, and the issues raised in dealing with them often focus on the present as much as the past.  This course will address these issues through several familiar case-studies.  Guiding questions include:  Who owns the past?  When space is limited, what deserves eminent domain?  What role do ancient remains make in modern identities?  How much is that picture in the window?

Six Lectures:

Set One:    
          1. The Living Dead City of Pompeii.  Art History and Archaeology had their start at this well-known archaeological site,
              which today, once again, lives through the lifeblood of cultural tourism.       
          2. The Bamyan Buddhas and Islamic Iconoclasm.  The destruction of these important monuments in Afghanistan by
              the Taliban fits less the nature of Islamic iconoclasm than it does the realities of the modern television age.
          3. Mediterranean Archaeology and Modern Nationalism.  The political geography of the Mediterranean and
              surrounding regions in the 19th and 20th centuries has been influenced profoundly by images and notions derived
              from a century of archaeological research.

Set Two:    
          4.  ‘Hoving’s Pot’ and Other Hot Items.  The historic agreement in 2007 to return to the Republic of Italy the famous
                Kalyx Krater painted by Euphronios,displayed in the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art since the 1970s, is cause to
                discuss the ownership of cultural properties and international responsibilities.
          5.  Ancient Mounds and ‘60s Minimalism in America.  The treatment of America’s ancient monumental architecture
               and the development of Land Art as a genre is an important relationship within the environmental movement of the
               1960s and ‘70s.
          6.  Klimt Verklempt.    What would the Viennese artist have said about the confiscation of his painting of Adele
               Bloch-Bauer or its recent sale for $135 million?  This lecture explores the present appeal of Vienna Secession art and
              culture.

Biographical Information:  Dr. Brian E. McConnell is a member of the Department of Visual Arts & Art History at FAU, where he teaches Art History and Classical Archaeology.  He holds degrees from Dartmouth College and Brown University, and he has over two decades of experience in the research and management of cultural resources in the Mediterranean.  He is the author of many articles and several monographs, many focused on the archaeology of ancient Sicily.