March 23, 2010 - June 28, 2010

Commissioned through The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, and co-curated by Jody Clowes, Jo Lauria, John Perreault and Judith Tannenbaum, Ceramic Interactions is sited at three Philadelphia institutions (the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Eastern State Penitentiary and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology). Ceramic Interactions involved the commissioning of new works (or, in the case of the Penn Museum, inclusion of an artist’s recent works), in response to a piece, collection, or space housed within each venue. The artists' work offers each institution—and its public—an expanded or new context for seeing, interpreting or experiencing their collections or the way they perceive their space.

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Himalaya: Land of the Snow Lion was on display in our Merle-Smith gallery 01 November 2008 through 14 September 2009.

In this new exhibition of 45 black and white images, photographer Andrea Baldeck explores the territory, often called "between heaven and earth," encompassing ethnic, cultural and historical Tibet, which stretches from the western Himalaya mountains of Ladakh (northern India), to Bhutan, the Tibetan Autonomous Region, and east into Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. Her photographs offer a compelling look at an ancient, mostly Buddhist world through portraiture, landscapes, architecture and still life. These invite the viewer to share in her personal, often intimate, journey, exploring the texture and rhythm of human life in these harsh and remote mountains, once isolated, now increasingly exposed to the forces of societal change in an ever more interconnected world.

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His Golden Touch: The Gordion Drawings of Piet de Jong will be on display in our Merle-Smith gallery
26 September 2009 through 10 January 2010.

One of the great archaeological illustrators of the 20th century, Piet de Jong spent the summer of 1957, at the invitation of excavation director Rodney Young, working at the renowned site of Gordion in central Turkey. While de Jong set about on a series of watercolors reconstructing wall paintings from a previously uncovered "Painted House," ca. 500 BCE, Penn Museum excavators were making a now-famous discovery: they penetrated a large, exceptionally well-preserved grave mound, known as the "Midas Mound" for its association with the legendary King Midas and his family. There, they found a wealth, not of gold, but of royal artifacts and information about the Phrygian people of 2700 years ago.

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March 26 through June 20, 2010

The 1880's and 1890's were decades of tremendous upheaval for many native peoples in Texas. Numerous Indian reservations were opened in the Oklahoma and Indian Territories during this time and large-scale efforts were made to force the Native Peoples to adopt Euro-American ways. In Citizen’s Garb: Southern Plains Native Americans, 1885–1891, explores how dress--and life--changed for the Kiowa and Comanche tribes as they gradually adjusted to the new life forced upon them by the United States government. Images of Native Americans in both citizen and native dress reflect the transition occurring between the tribes’ past and their radically different future. Other details are more subtle: a tipi constructed of store-bought canvas rather than of animal hides, for example, reflects a significant change in the material culture of the Native Peoples. The exhibition is curated by John Hernandez, Director of the Museum of the Great Plains in Lawton, Oklahoma, and is organized by the Museum of the Great Plains.

Presentation of In Citizen's Garb at the Penn Museum is made possible by the generosity of Lynne and Harold Honickman in honor of the memory of Elaine Garfinkel.

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Marilyn Bridges: The Sacred and the Secular was on display in our Merle-Smith gallery 24 April 2009 through 21 June 2009

Aerial landscapes of sites in Peru, Mexico, Egypt, Greece, England, and 11 of the fifty United States—all photographed from a single engine Cessna by intrepid co-pilot, explorer and internationally-renowned photographer Marilyn Bridges, were the subject of this exhibition. The photographs, taken in the 1980s and presented in large-scale Silver gelatin print format, included scenes of ancient and more contemporary landscapes. The exhibit featured images of famous ancient sites of Machu Picchu, Peru; Chichen Itza and Yaxchilan, Mexico; Giza, Egypt; and Corinth, Greece, seen alongside more contemporary landscapes: a baseball playing field in New York, an industrial scene in Houston, Texas, and oil refinery in Greece.

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Painted Metaphors: Pottery and Politics of the Ancient Maya will be open in our Dietrich gallery 05 April 2009 through 31 January 2010.

Around 700 CE Chamá and the other towns and villages along Guatemala’s Chixoy River were hubs of activity, crossroads of trade and pilgrimage, channeling the movement of people and ideas at the height of Maya civilization. This is the story of the ancient Maya as lived by these villagers and the rediscovery of their history by archaeologists today.

Penn Museum’s unique collection of brilliantly painted Chamá Polychromes opens a window into the lives of the ordinary Maya of 1300 years ago, and the way they dealt with the challenge of forced change. More than 150 objects--figurines, jades, musical instruments, ritual objects, weaving implements, cooking pots and projectile points--convey vibrant evidence of ancient Maya life, as revealed by archaeological discovery and scientific analysis.

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Polynesia (from the Greek for “many islands”) is a series of islands and island groups widely scattered across the central and south Pacific Ocean.  Most of these islands lie in what is known as the “Polynesian triangle,” formed by the Hawaiian Islands to the north, Easter Island to the east, and New Zealand to the south. 

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Raven's Journey interprets the traditions of the Tlingit, Athapaskan, and Eskimo groups that have inhabited western North America for centuries. In all three cultures, "Raven" is believed to be creator of all things, yet each group expresses this concept in different and distinctive ways. The galleries feature the late 19th and early 20th century arts and culture of these three native Alaskan groups, with over 370 objects and rare ethnographic photographs from the Museum's extraordinary American collections.

This exhibit places objects in their cultural contexts, giving insight into the significance of the beautifully crafted implements (tools), weapons, clothing, and ceremonial paraphernalia on display. You'll learn how the Tlingit used certain objects as symbols of social standing and prestige as well as how the Eskimos encoded their implements and references to the animal spirit world. The Athapaskans share the ideas and material culture of both the Tlingit and Eskimo groups.

By crafting beautiful objects with symbolic references to the mythological and supernatural world, the Tlingit, Athapaskan, and Eskimo people rendered the spirit world visible and tactile, a part of their everyday lives.

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Surviving: The Body of Evidence was on display 19 April 2008 through 03 May 2009

Penn Museum takes an up close and personal look at the scientific study of evolution with this challenging new traveling exhibition that puts you—and your fellow humans—at the center of the inquiry, on a journey of self-discovery. Surviving, an interactive, multimedia traveling exhibition supported in large part by a grant from the National Science Foundation, begins with the premise that you and your fellow humans are survivors. Your body holds the evidence. The continuing process of evolution and its outcomes have had a profound impact on every aspect of your daily lives.

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December 10, 2009 -  May 14, 2010

"If you can imagine and see a community in a different way, you can create a community in a different way."
- Reverend Patrick Cabello Hansel, Founder of the Goodlands®

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