Lectures, Symposia, and Gallery Talks

The Museum's commitment of academic excellence is reflected in the lectures, symposia, and gallery talks presented by the Office of Educational Programs. The Museum draws on the rich resources of the University's faculty and supports Emory's academic mission by bringing nationally and internationally recognized scholars, authors, and artists to campus. Most of these public lectures and symposia are free and all are open to the Emory community and the public. For a listing of upcoming programs, please see the Calendar.

Chamber Music Concerts

The Office of Educational presents a series of noontime chamber music concerts performed by members and guests of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta. The concerts are free and open to the Emory community and the public. This year's series includes:

Friday, September 16
Emory's Quartet-in-Residence, the Vega String Quartet, performs Beethoven and Brahms.

Friday, October 14
Pianist Elena Cholakova celebrates Liszt's Bicentennial

Friday, November 11
Violinst Eun Sun Lee and cellist Charae Krueger play Mendelssohn's Trio in D Minor with pianist William Ransom.

Friday, December 9
Emory's Young Artists features some of the Department of Music's finest undergraduate talents.

Friday, January 27
Pianist Gloria Chien joins the Vega String Quartet for Dvorak's Quintet and Mozart piano-four-hands with William Ransom.

Friday, February 24
"Side-by-Side" — Mozart's Grant Partita for Winds perfomed by Emory faculty and students

Tuesday, April 3
Robert Spano joins the Vega String Quartet for a performance of Brahms' Quintet in F Minor.

Friday, April 20
Brahms' Sextet for Strings in Bb with Christoper Rex, cello; Eun Sun Lee, viola; and the Vega String Quartet

Friday, May 11
Brother and sister William and Kate Ransom perform piano and violin duos in a program titled Ransom Notes.

Carlos Reads Book Club

Carlos Reads offers an opportunity to read great works of literature related to the Museum's collections and exhibitions in an informal, small group setting with distinguished members of the Emory faculty as a guide.  Previous Carlos Reads groups have read Plato's Symposium, Herodotus' Histories, the Qur'an, and Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, among others.  Sign up to read and discuss one book, or many.
Carlos Reads discussions meet on Monday nights, unless otherwise noted, at 7:30 pm in the Board Room on the second floor of the Museum.  Prices vary according to the number of sessions and always include the cost of the book. Registration is required for each club by calling 404 727-6118 or emailing ehornor@emory.edu.

During Spring semester, participants will have the opportunity to read and discuss the following books:

Monday, January 30
The Tale of Sinhue
A masterpiece of Egyptian poetry from the Middle Kingdom, the Golden Age of Egyptian literature, The Tale of Sinuhe examines what it meant to be an Egyptian. After the death of Pharaoh Amenemhat I, Sinuhe, a royal official, flees.  He lives outside of Egypt for many years and raises a family but, as an old man, longs to return to his homeland for a "proper burial."  Dr. Gay Robins, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Egyptology, leads readers through this short text, exploring major themes, its similarities to biblical stories, and its influence on modern literature.  Fee:  $20 for Museum members; $30 for non-members.

Monday, February 13
Hesiod's Theogony
Tricky Titans, bundles of nymphs, and a revolving-door account of divine succession fill the thousand-plus lines of Hesiod's Theogony, a mythical account of how the world came to be — and how a poet got his voice.  Let by Dr. Sandra Blakely of Emory's Classics Department, readers will dive into the poetry and mythology of this late 8th century work, considering its historical context and Near Eastern influences, the ritual realities and local cults of the gods; and contemporary hypothoses for the meaning of the poem.  Fee:  $20 for Museum members; $30 for non-members.

Tuesdays, February 21 - March 6
The Ramayana

Emory scholars Joyce Flueckiger and Narayan Rao leads readers through The Ramayana. One of India's two major pan-Indian epics, the Ramayana has had a long and sustained history in the development of civilizational values in South Asia. The Ramayana has multiple regional language versions, both literary and oral, in addition to a number of literary forms in Sanskrit itself. It's popularity and influence cannot be over estimated. Its characters are larger than life, occupy an imagined timeless past, and at the same time, they are household names, as familiar as next door neighbors speaking to the present. Episodes from the Ramayana are represented in every conceivable medium: poetry, drama, dance, song, sculpture, painting and film. Since the text of the full Ramayana is too long for our book group, Drs. Joyce Flueckiger and Narayan Rao will lead readers through a retelling of the epic, particular episodes from various regional language version, and an examination of visual representations of these episodes. Fee:  $45 for Museum members: $65 for non-members.

Mondays, March 19, 26, and April 2
Virgil's Aeneid
Dr. Garth Tissol, Associate Professor of Classics, leads readers through Virgil's epic story of the founding of Rome.
Fee:  $45 for Museum members; $65 for non-members.

Monday, April 9
The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes
Dr. Deepika Bahri of Emory's English Department and Dr. Sara McClintock of the Religion Department lead readers though The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes, a mystery worthy of the master Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself.

In 1891, the British public was horrified to learn that Sherlock Holmes had perished in a deadly struggle with the archcriminal Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls. Then, to its amazement, he reappeared two years later, informing a stunned Watson, 'I traveled for two years in Tibet, therefore, and amused myself by visiting Lhasa.'

Nothing has been known of those missing years until Jamyang Norbu's discovery, in a rusting tin dispatch box in Darjeeling, of a flat packet carefully wrapped in waxed paper and neatly tied with stout twine. When opened the packet revealed Huree Chunder Mookerjee's (Kipling's Bengali spy and scholar) own account of his travels with Sherlock Holmes.

Now for the first time, we learn of Holmes's brush with the Great Game and the world of Kim. We follow him north across the hot and duty plains of India to Simla, summer capital of the British Raj, and over the high passes to the vast emptiness of the Tibetan plateau. In the medieval splendor that is Lhasa, intrigue and black treachery stalk the shadows, and Sherlock Holmes confronts his greatest challenge. Fee: $20 for Museum members; $30 for non-members.

Mondays, May, 7, 14, and 21
Aeschylus' Oresteia
Louise Pratt, Professor of Classics, leads readers though The Oresteia, a trilogy of Greek tragedies about the fall of the House of Atreus. Fee: $45 for Museum members; $65 for non-members.

Museum Tours

Public Tours: Members of the Museum's Docent Guild lead public tours of the permanent collection and special exhibitions every Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Tours begin in the Rotunda on Level One of the Museum.

Docent-led tours are available for groups of ten or more by appointment. Please contact Nina West by phone at 404-727-0519 or by email at nwest@emory.edu to schedule a tour for your group. Please call at least two weeks in advance. For special needs tours, please contact Julie Green by phone at 404-727-2363 or by email at jgree09@emory.edu.

Audio Tours

An MP3 audio tour of highlights of the the permanent collection is available at the Reception Desk on Level One. The MP3 format allows visitors to hear from Museum and University experts at the touch of a button. The guide is available for a rental fee of $2. Museum members enjoy unlimited free usage.

A second audio tour makes connections between the Museum's permanent collections and the times and texts Bible. Curators and faculty members from Emory University's Candler School of Theology and the Departments of Religion and Middle Eastern Studies explore objects in relation to biblical texts to enhance our understanding of the cultures out of which Judaism and Christianity developed. The guide is available for a rental fee of $2. Museum members enjoy unlimited free usage.

AntiquiTEA

A civilized learning experience, monthly at 4 pm in the Museum’s Reception Hall. Enjoy afternoon tea and scones and Emory faculty and Museum curators discuss works of art in the collections and exhibitions. Check calendar for specific program dates.