A lecture on the demons, monsters, and witches that haunted daily life in ancient Mesopotamia, blamed for disease and death, especially in infants, and the protective rituals people used against them.
Playwright Walker Caplan reads from DUMMY and talks with Eliza Palter of New Relic Theatre about reimagining the historic "dumb scene," drawing on archival research and library materials.
One painting, one long look. A museum educator leads a conversation with fellow attendees in the galleries, with Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert as the focus and everyone encouraged to join in.
A guided walk through the institute's current exhibition on magic and curses in the ancient world, led in the gallery itself. An hour with the objects and someone who can explain them.
A morning in a Gilded Age mansion full of Vermeer, Rembrandt, Fragonard and Turner, with the gallery talk A Home for Art on how the house became a museum.
A documentary shot over six years in nine countries, tracing the sanctioned sale of polar bears. A panel with the film's creators follows the screening.
Palaeontologist Dean Lomax reads the fossil evidence for how prehistoric animals really behaved, from fighting dinosaurs to a two-headed reptile. A Q&A and book signing follow.
Prof. Jeb Card traces how paranormal and conspiracy myth-makers borrow from ancient archaeology, from intelligent plasma jinn to star-sent Anunnaki and secret missions to seize a stargate.
Heka, the force usually translated as "magic," was woven into creation itself for the ancient Egyptians. The talk draws on texts and objects from the exhibition Cursed.
A museum educator leads a long, unhurried look at one work, Vecchietta's Resurrection of Christ, with the galleries after hours. Attendees are encouraged to join the conversation.
After hours in the galleries, take a long look at one work with a museum educator and fellow attendees, focused on Kent Monkman's dialogue with Johannes Vermeer.
Two decades of excavation are used to argue for a fundamental rethinking of how precolonial African states formed, looking at elites, trade, technology and governance in the archaeological record.
A talk on ancient Jewish prayer that looks past liturgy to the amulets and phylacteries worn on strings and cords, and how they tied supplicants' minds, hearts, and bodies to devotion.
