In March 2025, the Nicholson Center for British Studies, in partnership with the Smart Museum, welcomed Kress Foundation President Dr. Julia Alexander to campus. On March 4th, Dr. Alexander gave a lecture titled “The Museum as Cenotaph or Time-Machine? Thoughts on Art, History, and Institutions in Our Nearsighted Moment” followed by a reception in the Robert Earl Paige bedecked lobby. In her lecture, Dr. Alexander shared thoughts on her tenure as Executive Director and CEO at the The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, reflecting on how intentional, locally attuned curatorial practices and creatively expansive exhibitions can make a positive difference and impact in our current moment.
On March 5th, Dr. Alexander spoke with Dr. Andrei Pop (Allan and Jean Frumkin Professor of Art History and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago), moderated by Dr. Steve Pincus (Interim Director of the Nicholson Center and Thomas E. Donnelly Professor of History at the University of Chicago), in the Smart Museum’s Study Room. Dr. Alexander and Professor Pop discussed the relationship between the intellectual work of the museum and the academy. Participants enjoyed a close-up view of a number of items from the Smart Museum’s collection, part of a large gift from the Kress Foundation in the mid-20th century, including two paintings from c. 1500 by the Master of the Apollo and Daphne Legend and a Farnese Reliquary from c. 1550 attributed to Antonio Gentili da Faenza.
