This course and the exhibits entitled “Seeds of Divinity” grew out of a collaboration between the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) and the Worcester Art Museum (WAM) that endeavored to involve more professionals and students in their Pre-Columbian collections of art and artifacts from Mexico and Central America. Both museums hoped to make these collections more accessible by organizing exhibits and by allowing students to research these objects. Thus, ANTH 281 was born in the fall 2017, when the students and I co-curated the exhibit Seeds of Divinity at WCMA on view between January and August 2018. The assistance of the WCMA and WAM director and curators was indispensable, and here we want to recognize the special assistance of Elizabeth Gallerani, Curator of Mellon Academic Programs and Hadley DesMeules, Interim Manager of Student and Visitor Engagement. View the WCMA Seeds of Divinity Exhibit.
I have now taught the course for a second time in the spring 2019. Because we were not able to have an actual exhibition, we created instead a virtual exhibit. Five short videos were produced by the students in ANTH 281 (Spring 2019), as a virtual exhibit on view in May and June 2019 on the lower level of Sawyer Library.
This website was created to archive the research and resources produced by these students from both the fall 2017 and spring 2019 semesters. We would like to thank Tamra Hjermstad, Instructional Technology Specialist, Williams College, for her assistance in creating this site and the mentoring the students in video production.
You will also find here the research essays of each student, who investigated two to three objects which were part of the WCMA 2018 exhibit or the 2019 virtual exhibit. Enjoy!
If you have any questions, please email Antonia Foias ([email protected]), Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology & Sociology, Williams College, Hollander 309, Williamstown, MA 01267.