Staged in conjunction with the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art’s Fall 2025 exhibition "Paper Backs: Hidden Stories of European Prints from the VUMA Collection," this virtual symposium will bring together curators who oversee collections of European prints at museums spread across the South. Each curator will give a lightning-style, 10-minute presentation about their museum’s pre-1915 European print holdings, with the goal of making these collections better-known amongst local, regional, and global audiences of both amateurs and professionals. The symposium also seeks to initiate a collective discussion about how and why European prints often served as catalysts for the formation of institutional art collections in a region with limited public art infrastructure before the turn of the twentieth century. How did old master and early modernist European prints in particular support various progressive and post-World War I- era agendas? What challenges and opportunities face the study and promotion of such objects in the South today?
Attendance is free and open to all. Please register to receive the Zoom link: vu.edu/paperbackstories

Program and Schedule:

12pm CST / 1pm EST:
"Symposium introduction, and overview of pre-1915 European print holdings at The Vanderbilt University Museum of Art"
Dr. Courtney Wilder, Curator of Works on Paper, Vanderbilt University Museum of Art, Nashville, TN
12:15pm CST / 1:15pm EST:
"Overview of pre-1915 European print holdings at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art"
Dr. Sarah Cartwright, Chief Curator and Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University, Sarasota, FL
12:25pm CST / 1:25pm EST:
"Overview of pre-1915 European print holdings at The Ackland Art Museum"
Dr. Dana E. Cowen, Sheldon Peck Curator for European and American Art before 1950, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
12:35pm CST / 1:35pm EST:
"Overview of pre-1915 European print holdings at The Birmingham Museum of Art"
Dr. Maggie Crosland, The Fariss Gambrill Lynn and Henry Sharpe Lynn Curator of European Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
12:45pm CST / 1:45pm EST:
"Overview of pre-1915 European print holdings at The Georgia Museum"
Dr. Nelda Damiano, Pierre Daura Curator of European Art, Georgia Museum, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
1pm CST / 2pm EST:
"Overview of pre-1915 European print holdings at The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"
Dr. Alyssa M. Hughes, Works on Paper Specialist for the Frank Raysor Collection, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA

1:10pm CST / 2:10pm EST:
Audience Q&A and discussion amongst participants

1:30pm CST / 2:30pm EST:
Event concludes