Enduring Verdance: Jade in the Ancient Americas (Section A)

Join Bryan R. Just, the Peter Jay Sharp, Class of 1952, Curator and Lecturer in the Art of the Ancient Americas, for a hands-on introduction to jade, jade-working, and the long social lives of objects made of this enduring material. As early as 1000 BC, the Indigenous peoples in what are today Mexico and Central America considered jade one of the most precious, symbolically potent materials and expended years of work to shape even modestly-sized sculptures. The durability and allure of jade resulted in many such objects passing through multiple hands over the following three millennia, sometimes undergoing physical modifications along the way. This session will provide participants with an appreciation of the material, a basic knowledge of the methods used in its shaping, and the opportunity to contemplate how we might best understand an object that accrues multiple meanings and functions over time.

What to expect:
Workshop with travel

Meet the facilitator:
Bryan R. Just is the Peter Jay Sharp, Class of 1952, Curator and Lecturer of the Art of the Ancient Americas at the Princeton University Art Museum. Just received a B.A. in Archaeological Studies and the History of Art from Yale University (1995) and an M.A. (1999) in Art History and a Ph.D. (2006) in Art History and Linguistics, both from Tulane University. A specialist ancient Maya art history, his publications include "Dancing into Dreams: Maya Vases of the Ik’ Kingdom" (2012) and “Printed Pictures of Maya Sculpture” (2012). He served as in-house curator for the exhibition "Gifts from the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait," co-curated by William Fitzhugh and Julie Hollowell, from October 2009 –" January 2010 at Princeton. His 2012 exhibition "Dancing into Dreams: Maya Vases of the Ik’ Kingdom" was one of five finalists for the Association of Art Museum Curators 2012 Outstanding Exhibition in a University Museum. In 2015, he reopened the completely refurbished ancient Americas galleries at the Princeton University Art Museum. Just’s teaching at Princeton includes seminars on Maya and Olmec art, as well as introductory lecture courses on the art of Mesoamerica. Just chairs Princeton University’s NAGPRA committee. He is currently writing a handbook of the Museum’s collections from Mesoamerica.

To request accommodations for this event, please contact the workshop or event facilitator at least 3 working days prior to the event.

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