Child’s Silk Jacket, 700s. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
A unique opportunity to discover the Silk Roads on ARTscapades’ two-part study course with Professor Susan Whitfield, who has been researching, travelling and writing about the Silk Roads for over 30 years. With major exhibitions at the British Museum and British Library about to open, explore the artistic outputs resulting from consequences of medieval trade and travel across Afro-Eurasia which, as the British Museum exhibits show, can even be seen in the British Isles.
Includes two lectures, Q&A and a short break. Tickets £20
Lecture One: Introduction to the Silk Roads: history and religions
Lecture Two: Silk on the Silk Roads
The first lecture will briefly discuss the concept of the Silk Roads and give an introduction to its landscapes, peoples and religions over a thousand years of history. Religious buildings— Buddhist, Christian and Islamic—and their increasing complexity and size and their prominence in Silk Road landscapes will be discussed.
Silk and the transfer of the textile and the technology—sericulture—from China to southern Europe during this period, will be the focus of the second lecture. Several pieces of silk will be looked at in some detail, considering their uses and designs, and how they have survived for over a thousand years.
To book for Part Two of SHORT COURSE Silk Roads: Art and Architecture please click here.
Susan Whitfield’s book Silk Roads: Peoples, Cultures and Landscapes is published by Thames & Hudson. Short Course ticket holders receive a code for 20% off the retail price of the book via thamesandhudson.com.
The Exhibition Silk Roads is at the British Museum from 26 September 2024 to 23 February 2025; ARTscapades Short Course ticket holders will shortly be sent a code for a special offer on the exhibition catalogue via BM shop website.
Proceeds from ARTscapades ticket sales benefit museums, galleries and other arts-based organisations and projects.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom which can be watched live, or on-demand for one month afterwards. You will receive your link to access the event in your email confirmation and the on-demand link after the event ends.