Please join the The Center for the Humanities and the Yale Center for British Art Tuesday, October 24th for Casting the Curriculum: The Parthenon Marbles, Plaster Casts, and Public Sculpture, a day-long symposium on the legacy of the Parthenon and the production and reception of public sculpture. Speakers include GC Art History professors Rachel Kousser and Harriet Senie, Katherine Schwab, Ray Ring, Keith Wilson, Martina Droth, and Rebecca Wade.

The Parthenon is the most sculpturally rich building to survive from antiquity, and the frieze is the best-preserved section of its original adornment. Newly installed in the Graduate Center’s lobby and library is a remarkably early and well-conserved set of British Museum casts on long-term loan from CUNY’s City College that had originally been used to teach art and art history there for more than 100 years.

This day-long symposium, organized as part of welcoming these plasters to the Graduate Center and cosponsored by the Yale Center for British Art, brings together a distinguished lineup of art historians, curators, and artists to examine their historical and contemporary context. Beginning with the original sculptural scheme of the Parthenon and its legacy, and turning towards the international distribution and educational role of the plaster cast, the symposium will conclude with a discussion of issues surrounding the production and reception of public works of sculpture.