Arts of Asia Spring 2025 Visualizing the Divine
Society for Asian Art and Asian Art Museum are separate non-profit organizations with separate memberships. Please use the appropriate registration buttons to register for Society programs.
Since the dawn of human experience, there has been a search to understand the mysteries that surround us. As we contend with the unseen, the unknown, and the unknowable, beliefs in spirits, demons, gods, and other divinities have emerged to help us make sense of our time on Earth.
Join us as our Instructor of Record, Asian Art Museum Associate Curator Jeff Durham, guides us through 14 lectures on Visualizing the Divine. Noted scholars will discuss traditions from different parts of Asia, exploring how both ancient and contemporary cultures have depicted visions, feelings, and beliefs relative to the metaphysical and the otherworldly.
The Arts of Asia committee welcomes comments about our lecture series. Please email comments to info@societyforasianart.org.
Please refer to the schedule of Speaker & Topics below to ascertain the location of each lecture.
Speakers & Topics (Subject to Change)
Jan. 31, 2025
Tibetan Renaissance: Monastery Murals and the Rebirth of Buddhism
Jeffrey Durham, Associate Curator of Himalayan Art, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
Feb. 7, 2025
Insights in Living with the Gods
Bradley Bailey, Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Curator of Asian Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Feb. 14, 2025
Zoroastrianism
Daniel Sheffield, Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
Feb. 21, 2025
Contrasting Expressions of Shinto between Isa and Izumi Shrines and Trajectories to the Contemporary Built Environment in Japan
Ken Tadashi Oshima, Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Washington
Feb. 28, 2025
Hinduism Across Asia
Layne Little, Associate Professor of Teaching, Religious Studies Department, University of California, Davis
Mar. 7, 2025
TBD
Mar. 14, 2025
The Buddhist Wheel of Rebirth, Past and Present
Stephen F. Teiser, D.T. Suzuki Professor in Buddhist Studies and Professor of Religion, Department of Religion, Princeton University
Mar. 21, 2026
Pagans in the Churches: Traces of Traditional Roman Religion in the Early Christian Architecture of Arabia
Sarah Wenner, Curatorial Research Fellow of Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Cincinnati Art Museum
Mar. 28, 2025
Lives of Khmer Sculpture from Past to Present
Paul Lavy, Associate Professor of South & Southeast Asian Art History, University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa
Apr. 4, 2025
TBD
Apr. 11, 2025
Pure Land Buddhism as Practiced in Asia
Mark Blum, Shinjo Ito Distinguished Chair in Japanese Studies, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, University of California, Berkeley
Apr. 18, 2025
Light of the Valley: The Renovation of Svayambhunath
Padma Dorje Maitland, Malavalli Family Foundation Associate Curator of the Art of the Indian Subcontinent, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
Apr. 25, 2025
Chakrasamvara, The Wheel of Bliss
Samuel Grimes, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Fairfield University
May 2, 2025
It is Amun Who Made Me: A Tale of Two Houses
Marc Maillot, Associate Director/Chief Curator, ISAC Museum, University of Chicago
May 9, 2025
Visualizing the Divine Hands: Sutra Fragments and Imagining Deified Individuals in Japan’s Early Modern Period
Akiko Walley, Maude I. Kerns Associate Professor of Japanese Art, University of Oregon
Photo Credits:
Left: The Daoist deity Doumu, approx. 1700–1800. China; Fujian province. Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Porcelain, mold-impressed, with sculpted decoration. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Avery Brundage Collection, B60P1362. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Right: Goddess of Earth, 1976, by Mayumi Oda (Japanese, b. 1941). Showa period (1926–1989). Silkscreen print; ink and colors on paper. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Gift of Dr. Stephen A. Sherwin and Merrill Randol Sherwin, 2023.32. © Mayumi Oda. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Registered attendees of the lecture series are encouraged to attend in-person in Samsung Hall. Otherwise, registered attendees can attend via Zoom. Drop-ins for individual lectures are only available in-person in Samsung Hall on a space available basis. Drop-ins for individual lectures are not available on Zoom. The lecture series is organized as 14 separate Zoom webinars. A Zoom webinar confirmation email with information on how to join each week's webinar will be sent to all registered attendees 2 or 3 days before each lecture. Even though it is not required by Zoom, we recommend that you download and install Zoom on your computer or mobile device in advance, and set yourself up with a free account. Attendees will have a chance to participate in the Q&A via Zoom Q&A. Read Arts of Asia Zoom Webinar FAQs.
Registration Policies
The Society for Asian Art's cancellation policy requires at least one week's advance written notice in order to receive a refund of registration fees. This excludes our Travel programs, which have separate cancellation policies, as well as any programs where a specific refund policy is stated on the event page. Your fees will be returned to you through a check in the mail. To cancel, please contact us.
For programs located within the Asian Art Museum, the museum entrance fee must be paid separately and is not included with your registration fee.
Please note that by registering for a program, you are giving consent to the SAA to be photographed or videoed as a participant.