Released: December 20, 2010

Lincoln, Neb. - Veronica L. Passalacqua, curator of the C.N. Gorman Museum, Department of Native American Studies, University of California-Davis, will be the next Geske Lecturer in the annual history of the arts lecture series presented by the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.

Photo of the artwork 'Mega Sale'
Detail of "Mega Sale," Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, digital collage, 2010.

Her lecture, entitled "Archival Encounters," will be presented Monday, Jan. 31, 2011, at 7 p.m. in the Sheldon Museum of Art's Ethel S. Abbott Auditorium on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's city campus at 12th and R streets. The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will immediately follow the lecture in the Great Hall of Sheldon.

Native American communities have had complex relationships with early photography, experiencing the impact of images to create and communicate visual representations. Residing predominately in museum and institutional archives, interpretation of these images has shifted considerably since their creation to reflect increasingly wider perspectives. Passalacqua's lecture will address the contemporary photographic artwork of Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie (Tuskegee/Diné) as she visually reinterprets and reclaims archival images as a form of visual sovereignty.

Veronica Passalacqua
Veronica L. Passalacqua

The works discussed are derived from the archival collections of the Great Plains Art Museum, which will be on exhibit alongside the original photographs. "Double Vision: New Works by Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie" will be on display from Jan. 7 through March 27 at the Great Plains Art Museum, 1155 Q St. The exhibition coincides with and participates in the February celebration of Lincoln PhotoFest 2011.

As a writer, curator and scholar of Native North American art for the past 15 years, Passalacqua earned her Bachelor's degree from Harvard University and her Master's degree in museum studies from Oxford University. She has submitted her Doctorate in Museum Studies from Oxford University, where her thesis examines political lens-based artworks by contemporary Native North American artists.

Most recently, Passalacqua facilitated the donation/repatriation of a significant private Lakota collection of artifacts to the Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum, Pine Ridge Reservation. Previous curatorial work includes exhibitions at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford; the Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock; and the Barbican Art Gallery, London. As an independent scholar, she has worked at Christie's Auction House, the British Museum, Barbican Art Gallery, and consulted for Canadian High Commission.

 
The Norman and Jane Geske Lectureship in the History of the Arts was established in 1995 through the generosity of Norman and Jane Geske and features noted scholars in the history of the visual arts, music, theatre, dance, film, or architecture. The lectures are intended to advance the understanding and appreciation of the arts with creative writing and thinking that reflect the importance of historical perspective of the arts. The invited scholar presents a public lecture open to the campus and the community, focused ideally on a single work, art form, or artist that will subsequently be published and distributed to major research libraries throughout the United States.