Lectures

 
Featured
Art Deco—Miami | Diane Kane Art History Lecture
Apr 30
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Art Deco—Miami | Diane Kane Art History Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture

Thursday, April 30, 2026
7:30 PM

With over 800 buildings in the Streamline Moderne style, Miami Beach hosts the highest concentration of Art Deco buildings in the world. Sadly, the style’s origins and uniformity came about as a response to the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 that left 25,000 people homeless. Comprising seasonal hotels, commercial strips, and small apartments, the quickly rebuilt area epitomized the optimistic futurism extolled at the 1933 Chicago and 1939 New York World Fairs. Originally developed for middle-class seasonal tourists, this internationally famous tropical playground materialized into a cohesive urban resort that was neither centrally planned nor haphazardly built. Its prevailing non-traditional architecture charted a path toward mid-century modern, locally known as MiMo (or Miami Modern).

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Bernini in Roma | Linda Blair Art History Lecture
May 21
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Bernini in Roma | Linda Blair Art History Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture

Thursday, May 21, 2026
7:30 PM

We begin in Rome, vortex of Catholic Europe and home of Gianlorenzo Bernini, a sculptor-architect who fashioned our dream images of Rome, along with embellishments to St. Peter's Basilica. Bernini work adds to the paradox of the age: he was so pious he attended mass every morning, yet he sculpted one of the most shocking works in all European art.  

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
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May 21
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Series
The Age of Baroque | Linda Blair Art History Lecture Series
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Series

Thursdays, May 21 & 28; June 4 & 11, 2026
7:30 PM

The most glorious European art has often been born during times of tragedy and dislocation, reflecting the puzzling paradox between destruction and creativity, brutality and beauty. The 17th century is among the cruelest in European history, brutalized by constant wars, yet it produced majestic art. We shall explore this dynamic era through the lens of its greatest artists, such as Caravaggio and Velazquez. 

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Series
Gershwin in Vienna: Concert-Lecture with Levi Hammer, piano
May 26
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Music Lecture
Gershwin in Vienna: Concert-Lecture with Levi Hammer, piano
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Music Lecture

Tuesday, May 26, 2026
1 PM

Levi Hammer’s solo piano album Gershwin in Vienna brings together his American roots and his current life in Europe, where he has lived for the last decade. The historical and musical connections between Gershwin, Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern are fascinating but rarely explored beyond a tantalizing footnote. At the Athenaeum, Hammer will play much of the album and speak about the musical parallels between Gershwin and the Viennese modernist masters. Paintings by Gershwin and Schoenberg—both accomplished painters!—will accompany Hammer’s performance of their music. In addition, the composers’ Californian connection will be highlighted in a short film shot on Gershwin’s own tennis court in Los Angeles in the 1930s—right where their legendary tennis matches took place. This program is also an artistic and personal self-portrait of Hammer himself as he describes growing from a child of the Great American Songbook to a conductor and pianist wrestling with the rigorous beauties of the Second Viennese School.

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Music Lecture
Rubens in the North | Linda Blair Art History Lecture
May 28
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Rubens in the North | Linda Blair Art History Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture

Thursday, May 28, 2026
7:30 PM

While Bernini’s genius was realized in marble, Peter Paul Rubens’ artistry with brush and pigment was unmatched. Following an exploration of Rubens’ greatest works, we will turn to the artistic force and tragic life of Caravaggio.

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Caravaggio | Linda Blair Art History Lecture
Jun 4
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Caravaggio | Linda Blair Art History Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture

Thursday, June 4, 2026
7:30 PM

The art of Caravaggio, accused murderer, is tough to experience— its psychological realism too gritty, too bloody—yet his impact on subsequent artists, from Rembrandt to Delacroix, is profound.

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Velázquez in Spain | Linda Blair Art History Lecture
Jun 11
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture
Velázquez in Spain | Linda Blair Art History Lecture
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture

Thursday, June 11, 2026
7:30 PM

Called one of the premier artists of the Baroque Age, paradoxically Velázquez was not a Baroque painter. He was only artist permitted to paint the king, but his finest, most deeply felt canvases portray the poor and marginalized of society. A Spaniard in the land of the Inquisition, he rarely paints religious subjects. We will analyze his magisterial canvas, Las Meninas, to understand how radical it was.

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Art History Lecture