IN-PERSON PROGRAM

The New Latin American Art Galleries at the Walters Art Museum

Ellen Hoobler, William B. Ziff, Jr., Curator of Art of the Americas at the Walters Art Museum

Within Baltimore, the Walters Art Museum is traditionally thought of as the home for Monet’s Springtime, a repository for Asian porcelains, ancient Greek and Roman statuary, and perhaps as the repository for a broad collection of Renaissance and Baroque painting. Few people know that Henry Walters, one of the founders, purchased a silver “Peruvian chalice” (now known to date from 900-1100 CE) from Tiffany & Co. of New York in 1897, and would follow up that acquisition with a group of gold jewelry and ornaments from Prehispanic Panama and Colombia, as well as two Aztec sculptures of central Mexico, ca. 1400-1520. Those acquisitions were followed nearly a century later in 2009, by a large gift from John Gilbert Bourne of works from across Mexico and Central and South America. This tour, just five days after the inauguration of the first permanent galleries of Latin American art at the museum, will be given by Ellen Hoobler, the lead co-curator of the project. In these galleries, the ancient works are richly complemented by a number of colonial, modern, and contemporary works, as well as interactive elements and labels written by community labels. Come celebrate these exciting new spaces just after they open!