What am I reading in ScholarWorks? September 2025

For this month’s What Am I Reading in ScholarWorks, let’s extend the summer vacation state of mind and visit Boston Museum of Fine Arts through Art professor Barbara Kellum’s article “Gods, Goddesses & Mortals for the 21st Century: The Reinstallation of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Collection of Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art.” The reinstallation took place a few years ago, but the article Professor Kellum wrote about it remains a fascinating inside look into museum collection and display.

The first half of the article describes the MFA’s installation so well it feels as though you are standing beside her looking at it, but it is in the second half of this article that things get really interesting. When we visit museums we don’t always know what is left out of the collection or object labels. What information is included or not about the objects we see, what do the objects mean, or signify, to us over time—after all as Professor Kellum writes, “objects are not static but are ever-shifting in meaning.” What does that look like in the context of a greek vase, say? Find out in this fascinating article. Enjoy!

View in ScholarWorks: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/art_facpubs/31/

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