- January 8, 2026 | 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
- Continental 5, Ballroom Level
2A: Exhibiting the Etruscans Today: Rethinking Ways of Bridging the Past and the Present (Workshop)
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Sponsored by:
AIA Etruscan Interest Group
Organizers:
Alexandra A. Carpino, Northern Arizona University, Daniele F. Maras, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, and Richard De Puma, The University of Iowa
Panelists:
Daniele F. Maras, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, Luana Toniolo, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, Nancy de Grummond, Florida State University, Alexander Ekserdjian, Yale University, Kristine Bøggild Johannsen, Thorvaldsens Museum, Bodil Bundgaard Rasmussen, The National Museum of Denmark,Cecilie Brøns, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Vinnie Nørskov, Aarhus University, Renée Dreyfus, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young / Legion of Honor, and Lisa C. Pieraccini, University of California Berkeley
Overview Statement:
This workshop aims to provide a vibrant forum for exchange that engages with Etruscan material culture as the catalyst for discussions about collection stewardship, curatorial practice, visual display, and interpretation for current and future generations of museum goers and community stakeholders. It brings together directors, curators, art historians, and archaeologists dedicated not only to modernizing the presentation of their multifaceted Etruscan collections but also to making them attractive to 21st-century visitors of all backgrounds, ages, and identities.
The first four presentations will highlight the different strategies that several Italian museums are employing to reimagine how diverse audiences can more effectively engage with and learn about the Etruscans heritage, once considered an important marker of Italian cultural identity. Presentation 1 focuses on the renovation work currently underway at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, which includes new topographic and thematic sections as well as one where Etruscan art is integrated into a unified Mediterranean discourse. Presentation 2 highlights the reenvisioning efforts at the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, where a new chronologically organized itinerary, enhanced by multimedia displays, is now in operation. Presentation 3 centers on the impetus behind and display strategies of a new Italian cultural center in Gaiole in Chianti where the Etruscans heritage is interwoven with other important stories about the region. Finally, presentation 4 addresses how the curators of a recent exhibition at the Capitoline Museums gave audiences a new appreciation of the often-fragmentary nature of Etruscan art through virtuosic display decisions and full-color large-scale reconstructions.
The diverse collecting policies and curatorial trends at the four largest and most representative Danish museums with classical antiquities will be the focus of presentations 5 and 6, which will also include a discussion of how special exhibitions have shaped, over time, the perception and dissemination of the Etruscans heritage to Northern European audiences.
The final two presentations address topics related to the three exhibitions on Etruscan material culture that will open in California’s Bay Area in 2026. Presentation 7 considers the behind-the-scenes work that goes into planning and securing loans for the first international American exhibition in nearly two decades, which opens at the Legion of Honor in May. Presentation 8 focuses on the value of student participation in two different exhibitions on the University of California, Berkeley campus and how their hands-on engagement with Etruscan material culture will generate exhibit designs that speak to diverse audiences.