Chinese Object Study Workshops

The Program

Sophisticated visual analysis is a hallmark of art history and depends on skills acquired through the direct study of objects. These skills must be taught and practiced. Yet as graduate art history curricula have expanded to include training in methodology, historiography, and theory, training in object study has lessened. The problem is exacerbated for students of Chinese art history, whose graduate curricula include intensive language courses, as well as courses on religion, literature, and history.

Chinese Object Study Workshops is a program that provides graduate students in Chinese art history an immersive experience in the study of objects. The week-long workshops (Monday-Friday) will help students develop the skills necessary for working with objects, introduce them to conservation issues not readily encountered in typical graduate art history curricula, and familiarize them with important North American museum collections.

Each workshop is intended for around ten graduate students, to be selected from across North America and Europe through an open application process. These students will study and work with a team of faculty and curators from the host museum.

The program is funded by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation and advised by a steering committee (Jonathan Hay, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU; Stephen Little, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Kathleen Ryor, Carleton College; Joseph Scheier-Dolberg, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Jan Stuart, National Museum of Asian Art; and Peter Sturman, University of California, Santa Barbara. The National Museum of Asian Art is administering the program.