Art Institute of Chicago director to present 2009 Campbell Lecture Series Oct. 27-29

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

“The Promise of Museums” will be the topic of this year’s Campbell Lecture Series, presented by the director of the Art Institute of Chicago, James Cuno, Oct. 27-29. The lectures, which are free and open to the public, will begin at 6 p.m. each evening in Herring Hall, Room 100. Seating will begin at 5:30 p.m.

	JAMES CUNO

Cuno will explore public encyclopedic museums in terms of the enlightenment ideas that informed the founding of the British Museum, the world’s first secular, public, national museum, and that continue to apply today. He will begin the series with “The Promise of Science” and consider the regard for science as a means of inquiry based on the observation and analysis of things. In the second lecture, “The Promise of History,” he will look at history as a means of interpretation, of making sense of meaningful relationships between things. And in the final lecture, Cuno will discuss “The Promise of Cosmopolitanism,” an exploration of cosmopolitanism as a framework for understanding the implications of such meanings.

According to Cuno, each of these ideas has come under considerable pressure over the past century. Confidence in science — in knowing things, discovering truths and the belief in the idea of progress — has been challenged by discoveries in science itself and the use to which politics has put them. Confidence in history has been challenged as little more than myth-making, a weaving of “master” or meta-narratives to justify positions of power. And cosmopolitanism has been challenged as intellectually soft, not rooted in reality of modern, state-based geopolitics.

Cuno has been president and the Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago since September 2004. Previously, he served as professor and director of Courtland Institute of Art, University of London, from 2002-2004 and as professor and the Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums from 1991-2002.

A fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cuno has written and lectured widely on topics ranging from French caricature of the 18th and 19th centuries to contemporary American art, as well as on the role of art museums in contemporary American cultural policy. He is the author of “Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage.” A top-flight scholar with a remarkable reputation, he writes extensively on the role of museums, the current state and future of American art museums.

The Campbell Lecture Series was established by Rice alumnus T.C. Campbell ’34 and the School of Humanities as a 20-year public lecture series to further the study of literature.

For more information about the lecture series, call 713-348-6152 or visit http://campbell.rice.edu/.