Bibliography for: Williams, “Transformative Processes and New Global Narratives: Reimagining the Permanent Byzantine Galleries at Dumbarton Oaks”

• Henry, Barbara and Kathleen McLean, eds. “How we visitors changed our museum. Transforming the Gallery of California Art at the Oakland Museum of California (Oakland Museum of California, 2010).”

A report outlining the change/renovation process for a non-medieval collection. What can we as curators, scholars, and students of medieval art take from this account about curatorial process and transformation when reimaginging permanent galleries?

• Kassim, Sumaya. “The Museum will not be decolonised.” Media Diversified. November 15, 2017. And related video essay.

Is it possible to conceive of a movement towards global narratives of medieval art without also thinking about (and critiquing) the larger institutional structures in which we operate? What can curators, scholars, and students of medieval art learn from the larger movement to “decolonize” museums?

• Kirin, Asen. “Sacred Art, Secular Context,” in Sacred Art, Secular Context: Objects of Art from the Byzantine Collection of Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., ed. Asen Kirin (Athens, GA: Georgia Museum of Art, 2005), 13-21, esp. 17-19.

Useful introduction to Dumbarton Oaks holdings in Byzantine art that articulates the “DNA” of the collection and its display following a traditional, “decorative arts” narrative and provides solid background for Elizabeth Williams’ presentation.

• Wetzler, Rachel. “Autocorrect: The Politics of Permanent Collection Re-Hangs.” ARTnews 19 September 2016.

How might this rigorous, thought-provoking contextualization and critique of curatorial/art historical practices behind the reinstallations of modern/contemporary permanent galleries help innovate our thinking around the display of medieval art?

• Williams, Elizabeth Dospĕl, “Sacred Imagery.” In Woven Interiors: Furnishing Early Medieval Egypt, eds. Gudrun Bühl, Sumru Belger Krody, and Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, pp. 62-79 (Washington, DC: The Textile Museum, 2019).

An essay from a recent exhibition of late antique textiles that considers sacred imagery in domestic and ecclesiastical contexts with attention to intercultural fluidity.