The Berea College Art Gallery at Berea College in Berea, Ky., will present a free public symposium, “The Reign of the Horse: Exploring Cultural Connections Through Equine Images in Art,” from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 30, 2010. The symposium has been organized to coincide with the art exhibition, “The Horse in Japan, 1615-1912,” on exhibit through November 12 in the Upper Traylor Gallery in the Traylor Art Building at Berea College. The symposium will take place on the Berea campus in Room 218 of the Frost Building. For more information about the symposium, contact symposium organizer, Dr. Elizabeth Tobey at etobey@nsl.org or 540-687-6542 x 11.
The dominant theme of the symposium will be on the role of the horse in the development of cultural connections and how widely Kentucky’s influence extends throughout the world by virtue of its prominent role in the world of horsemanship. Curator and art historian Dr. Sandy Kita’s research on woodblock prints from Japan’s Edo period (1615 – 1868) examines the role of the horse in Japan’s cultural and military history and in its art. Dr. Kita is Senior Scholar at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pa.
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Dr. Ingrid Cartwright, an historian from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky., will examine connections between equestrian imagery created in the American Revolutionary period and early Republic and the European artistic traditions from which they spring. Dr. Cartwright is also the curator of “Hoofbeats and Heartbeats: The Horse in American Art,” currently on view at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
Dr. Elizabeth Tobey from the National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg, Va., will discuss the similarity of cultural roles of the horse throughout history, specifically how Italian city states used horses to cultivate diplomatic and trade ties with other European kingdoms and the Ottoman Empire. She will also highlight Kentucky-Japanese connections in the Thoroughbred racing industry.
The exhibition features works from the Berea College Art Gallery, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, Ore.; the National Sporting Library & Museum; and the private collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter and Dörte Simmons. The show was co-curated by Drs. Kita and Tobey. For more information on the exhibition, call 859-985-3530 or visit www.berea.edu/art/dug/
