Night at the Museum Faculty Dialogue
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
5:30pm – 7:00pm
UConn faculty Alexis L. Boylan (Africana Studies and Art and Art History), guest curator of Seeing Truth, and Sandy Grande (Political Science and Native American and Indigenous Studies), will discuss the Night at the Museum franchise and representations of Indigeneity, art, and museums. Positioned as a light, family-friendly comedy, the films use the American Museum of Natural History as the backdrop for antics about a night guard and objects and people that come to life in the museum after dark. Yet amidst the humor are in fact some very complicated and dark suggestions about the authority of museums, historical memory, and the role of Indigenous peoples and their participation in contemporary culture. The discussion will suggest how we as audiences might resist and reimagine traditional thinking about museums and knowledge making.
The exhibition, Seeing Truth: Art, Science, Museums, and Making Knowledge, and related public programs are generously supported by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
About The Speakers:
Alexis L. Boylan is the director of academic affairs of the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute (UCHI) and a professor with a joint appointment in the Art and Art History Department and the Africana Studies Institute.
Sandy Grande is a Professor of Political Science and Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Connecticut with affiliations in American Studies, Philosophy, and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
THE WILLIAM BENTON MUSEUM OF ART
University of Connecticut
School of Fine Arts
245 Glenbrook Road
Storrs, CT
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