Exhibition Lecture: (Un)broken Continuity

For centuries Western cultural institutions and museum exhibitions have advanced historical narratives of Mesopotamia with a singular, authoritative voice, predominantly disconnected from the present. Yet gaining ground are exhibitions that challenge this narrative, that center postcolonial perspectives and artistic responses of local and diaspora artists and communities. Drawing on diverse lived experiences, memories, and imagination, these multimedia works remind visitors of the complexity and continuity of this rich cultural heritage. This talk will explore powerful examples of such museum displays and the ways in which they humanize this history, creating links between past and present and giving voice to counter-narratives of this Mesopotamian past.

Kiersten Neumann specializes in the art and archaeology of West Asia, with a focus on Assyrian and Achaemenid material culture. In addition to co-editing The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East (2022), she has published numerous articles on sensory experience, ritualized practice, and visual culture, as well as on museum practice, collecting histories, and provenance research. She is Curator of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum (ISAC Museum [formerly Oriental Institute Museum]), Research Associate at ISAC, and Lecturer in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago. At the ISAC Museum, she has curated such exhibitions as “Joseph Lindon Smith: The Persepolis Paintings” (2022), “Making Sense of Marbles: Roman Sculpture at the OI” (2022–2023), and “Artifacts Also Die” (2023), in addition to the museum’s permanent galleries as part of a complete renovation (2019). She has conducted fieldwork in Turkey (Tell Tayinat) and Greece (Athenian Agora), and collaborates on international museum, art, and cultural heritage projects and exhibitions. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, she received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of British Columbia and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, during which time she also worked at the Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology in Berkeley, ultimately as Associate Curator and Interim Director.  

This lecture is given in conjunction with ISAW's exhibition Through the Lens: Latif Al Ani’s Visions of Ancient Iraq. This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue were made possible by generous support from the Violet Jabara Charitable Trust and the Leon Levy Foundation. Additional funding was provided by Joyce F. Menschel and Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Tucker.

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