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June 2007: Bonnie Speed

Director of Emory's Michael C. Carlos Museum

Bonnie Anne Speed has served as director of Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum since 2002.  During her tenure at the Carlos Museum, the institution has dramatically grown and elevated the quality of its permanent collections, and has mounted a number of successful special exhibitions, including Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur; Ramesses I: The Search for the Lost Pharaoh; and Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, which is currently touring nationally until 2008. 
A fine art/art education graduate of the University of Southern Maine, Ms. Speed continued her studies in art history at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and San Diego State University, and earned her M.A. in art history at the University of Kansas.  She attended the Mandarin Training Center in Taipei, Taiwan, on a scholarship to study conversational and written Mandarin Chinese and is fluent in the language. Before arriving at Emory, Ms. Speed was the director of visual arts at the Mitchell Museum at Cedarhurst in Mount Vernon, Illinois for nine years and then served as executive director of the Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas for two years.

Ms. Speed took some time from her busy schedule to answer questions about this summer’s special exhibition Cradle of Christianity: Jewish and Christian Treasures from the Holy Land (opening June 16, 2007), and other upcoming projects for the Carlos Museum.

Cradle of Christianity

Q: What is the significance of the upcoming Cradle of Christianity exhibition?

A: Cradle of Christianity is a wonderful opportunity for visitors to experience the formative roots of Judaism and Christianity through some of the most significant objects dating to biblical times ever found in excavation. People travel thousands of miles to see such artifacts, and they will be right here at Emory. We are honored to be presenting a large section of the Temple Scroll, the longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which describes an idealized temple and is legible to Hebrew-readers. The show also includes an inscription with the name Pontius Pilate, which is the only archaeological evidence of his existence, along with an actual fragment of the original Temple, the burial box of Caiaphas the High Priest, a reconstructed altar from a Byzantine church, and many other objects that inspire sheer wonder.

Q:  Is there anything visitor should know before visiting Cradle of Christianity, other than the fact that it is ticketed?

A: We have an informativewebsite just for this exhibition, www.carlos.emory.edu/cradle, where one can read all the particulars, but there are several items that are different with this exhibition. The Carlos Museum will be open seven days a week, and will offer extended hours. For the convenience of our visitors, we are offering ample free parking at Emory’s Briarcliff Campus ( 1256 Briarcliff Road) with a free shuttle that will run back and forth to the Museum. As always, we will present a spectacular schedule of educational programs for this exhibition that will run throughout the summer and early fall in conjunction with the exhibition, including lectures by noted authors Bruce Feiler (“Walking the Bible”) and Elaine Pagels (“Reading Judas”), panel discussions featuring experts from Emory and elsewhere in the field of religious study, an eight-week course offered through the Emory Center for Lifelong Learning, and more. Another educational highlight is the audio guide we are producing, which is included with the ticket purchase. This audio guide will share with visitors the incredible expertise of Emory’s scholars in the Religion Department, the Institute for Jewish Studies, and the Candler School of Theology. Although the exhibition has traveled to two other cities, only Atlanta will have this outstanding audio guide.

The Carlos Museum

Q: What are some of the greatest changes the Carlos Museum has undergone since you became the director?

A: The Carlos Museum has made significant additions to its permanent collections, particularly in the areas of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art. When collections expand we need to reconfigure the physical space to accommodate the new pieces. We have remodeled the Greek and Roman as well as the Egyptian galleries since I arrived, allowing visitors to the Museum a more compelling experience of the collections.

Q: Ideally where do you see the Museum developing and growing in the next five years?

A: The Carlos Museum, in alignment with an Emory strategic initiative, is looking closely at the influence of religion on art and culture, especially through its exhibitions and acquisitions over the next several years. Cradle of Christianity: Jewish and Christian Treasures from the Holy Land is an example of what we are calling the Five Faiths Interdisciplinary Initiative. This fall, we will host Buddha in Paradise, an exhibition of Tibetan tangkas, in honor of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Emory. The Five Faiths Interdisciplinary Initiative will introduce the beliefs and practices of Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Dialogue about faith traditions focused on works of art related to worship, religion, and/or spirituality encourages objective and thoughtful consideration of those traditions.

Q: What new acquisitions are you most proud of and why?

A: Difficult question, for I am very excited by the work of all of our curators in building our collections as cultural resources for not only Emory, but also the greater Atlanta community. We have been able to acquire fabulous works of Greek and Roman art due to the generosity of Mrs. Carlos, in particular a stunning Aphrodite and the rare Landsdowne Altar. We have expanded our Egyptian collection with a rare white coffin, stunning mythological papyrus from the 21st Dynasty, an Old Kingdom relief, and a remarkable Amulet of Amun. Our African collection has benefited from a gift of a gorgeous beaded Ndebele blanket and we recently acquired a huge Ethiopian cross. And, two beautiful Durer engravings are now in our Works on Paper collection.

Just for Fun

Q: When you're not on the job, what do you do for fun?

A: As a dressage fanatic, I spend as much time as possible training with my horse Phineus.

Edited by Jessica Moore
Communications Coordinator
Arts at Emory

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