On January 17, 2018, the Block Museum hosted a behind-the-scenes look at the exhibition “Paint the Eyes Softer: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt” with archaeologists, art historians, scientists and scholars of the ancient world. To celebrate the opening of the exhibition panelists shared their insights into the Roman past, including their discovery of what lies beneath the wrappings of a mummy featured in the exhibition.
Th panel included co-curators Marc Walton, research professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern and senior scientist at NU-ACCESS; Taco Terpstra, assistant professor of classics and history at Northwestern; and Essi Rönkkö, Block Museum curatorial associate. The curators were joined in conversation by Emily Teeter, Egyptologist, Oriental Institute.
At the start of the program Lisa Corrin, Block Museum Director, introduced the extraordinary intersection of research at play in the project. “Welcome to the Block and the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and the McCormick School of Engineering and the Feinberg School of Medicine! Although we are at Fisk Hall on a cold night you are actually in the presence of all these places, and a remarkable collaboration across four of the most dynamic and interesting units of Northwestern University. This project is an example of what can happen when we step outside the comfort zones of our specializations and come together to do research, build knowledge and change education and that is the heart of what the Block does.”
Paint the Eyes Softer is organized by Northwestern’s Block Museum in collaboration with the University’s McCormick School of Engineering, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, and School of Communications.
