Topic: Ways to Build Collections

Throughout time, people have surrounded themselves with objects they admire, desire, and cherish. Incorporating a wide variety of actions and emotions, collecting offers a valuable lens into the lives of collectors, the modern histories of objects, and, most importantly, ourselves. This talk will explore what collecting reveals about the effective powers of art and its role in our personal and cultural self-definition. 

Megan Gatton is a PhD candidate at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, where she is writing a dissertation on ancient worked bone objects. As an archaeologist, she excavates at the ancient Greek colony of Selinunte in Sicily and contributes to the creation of an archaeological museum on the Quirinal hill in Rome. She has held positions at a number of museums and galleries, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Addison Gallery of American Art.