Ahead of the 2025 Templeton Colloquium in Art History at UC Davis, Cultural Heritage at Stake: Between Conservation and Criminality, Professor of Art History Heghnar Watenpaugh has been speaking about the topic across California. Watenpaugh, who is organizing and moderating the colloquium, recently gave a lecture at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and was featured on Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour on KDVS.
Jamie Gelfond, a news and media relations intern with UC Davis, watched Watenpaugh's Getty Institute lecture, Survivor Objects and Captive Sites: Art and Cultural Heritage in Genocide, and shared the experience in the UC Davis Arts Blog.
Gelfond writes: Watenpaugh lectured so eloquently that even people who are not experts in the field, such as someone like me who is not an art history major, could understand the storyline and the significance behind it. This lecture was truly so meaningful and is even more applicable today with the fires happening in Los Angeles where some Armenian art is currently held. The preservation of Armenian history becomes more and more important every day and Watenpaugh does an amazing job explaining why.
Watenpaugh researches the visual cultures of the Middle East, including issues of architectural preservation, museums and cultural heritage. She is the author of The Missing Pages: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript, from Genocide to Justice.
"The intentional destruction of cultural properties is a worrisome global phenomenon today,” Watenpaugh said. “International organizations have largely failed to prevent destruction or to demand accountability for past actions. This is one of the most pressing subjects at the center of cultural heritage today.”
The upcoming colloquium
The Templeton Colloquium, which is free and open to the public, is Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. This year’s speakers will continue this conversation, examining the issues challenging culture preservation internationally.
Lynn Meskell, professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and a curator in the Middle East and Asia sections at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, will discuss “How and Why We Weaponize the Past.” In her presentation, the scholar will explore the roles of two intersecting international organizations (UNESCO and NATO) that sought to combat the fallout from ruin warfare and their respective aspirations for mission success.
Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the online arts publication Hyperallergic, art critic, curator, artist and lecturer, and recipient of the Susan C. Larsen Lifetime Achievement Award 2024, will also present. His talk, “Critics of Empire: Negative Space and Complicity,” will consider our roles as cultural producers and managers and how we are part of the erasure of cultures and histories, even if inadvertently.
For more on this subject, watch Watenpaugh's lecture on YouTube, listen to her on Dr. Andy and read Gelfond's full recap in the UC Davis Arts Blog.
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