Before jet planes and smartphones, merchants, monks, pilgrims, and militia spent months or years traversing perilous routes to carry luxury goods and innovative ideas thousands of miles across the globe. As desirable commodities from China such as silk, porcelain, paper, tea, jade, amber, spices, ivory, gunpowder, gold, and silver were carried across the land and sea trade routes known as the Silk Road, so too were religions, ideas, and new technologies spread and propagated in all directions.
In celebration of the Lunar New Year, learn about the ancient routes that connected countries from the Mediterranean to the Pacific and discover the historic transformations that resulted from these complex cultural exchanges in this talk from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. This is the first program of six in Santa Clara County Library District's inaugural Asian Art Museum art talk series:
- Feb 6: The Silk Road: Globalization in the Ancient World
- March 5: Persia: Crossroads Of Art And Culture
- May 7: Art Across Asia: Masterpieces Of The Asian Art Museum
- June 25: Expressions of Gender in Asian Art
- October 1: Demons and Creatures and Monsters
- October 29: Timeless Traditions: Expressions of the Divine in Indian Art
All programs will be held online on Tuesday evenings from 7 to 8 PM. Registration is required in order to receive the Zoom link. Click the links above to register.
Thanks to the Friends of Saratoga Libraries for sponsoring these programs and to the Asian Art Museum Docent Program which is generously supported by the Dhanam Foundation and Society for Asian Art.
For more information about the ancient Silk Road, explore these books:
Artifacts From the Ancient Silk Road
To learn more about the history of globalization, consider these books:
