Case Western Reserve University’s Department of Art History and Art, in collaboration with SPACES and the Cleveland Museum of Art, is proud to host a two-day public symposium in celebration of the internationally recognized exhibition Everlasting Plastics. Cocurated by Tizziana Baldenebro, curator of special projects at SPACES, and Lauren Leving, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Everlasting Plastics is currently on view at the US Pavilion of the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale (May 20–November 26,2023). The symposium serves as a forum to consider our cultural relationship to the ubiquity of plastic, its impact on material cultures, and the consequences and possibilities it entangles for our collective futures. The second day of the symposium is being held at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Have you ever wondered how artworks in the CMA’s collection are cared for? Join CMA conservators and technicians for guided tours of the galleries. Investigate artists’ materials and processes and learn about how the museum preserves artworks for the future. Textile conservator Robin Hanson discusses the collaborative treatment project for two Thomas Hope pieces, which united curatorial and conservation staff from the two different institutions.

Although the Jiangnan region of China, meaning “south of the Yangtze,” was the site of the first Ming dynasty capital, the court relocated to the north of China half a century after the dynasty’s founding. From this time, emperors and their immediate families were largely absent from the culture of this prosperous and vibrant heartland. But many ties still linked the culture of Jiangnan’s “Southern Paradise” and that of the Ming court. This lecture focuses on what artworks, as well as literature, can tell us about the often-fraught relationship between Jiangnan, its people, and their distant rulers in the north.

Ivory has long been a valued luxury material around the world; associated with the powerful elephant, it has a beautiful luster and can be finely carved into dynamic objects. The history of ivory in art gives an insight into trade routes and relationships between Africa and Europe, but it also has a darker side. The trade in elephant ivory has caused irreparable harm to elephant populations and is now strictly controlled, affecting even the travel and loan of artworks. Learn more about this fascinating material and explore objects made of ivory and other similar media in the CMA galleries.