Discussions of Mesoamerican Art Free, Open to Public
Kansas City, MO – The University of Missouri at Kansas City will host a symposium in conjunction with The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art exhibition Painted Worlds: Color and Culture in Mesoamerican Art. The event will take place February 5th, 6th, and 7th across locations at both UMKC and the Nelson-Atkins.
On Thursday, February 5th, Diana Magaloni, of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Laura Filloy Nadal, of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will join Nelson-Atkins Director & CEO Julián Zugazagoitia in the museum’s Atkins Auditorium for a pre-symposium lecture and discussion of new projects that will challenge traditional art, historical, and museum models, and will explore how updating museum architecture can foster new ways of engaging with historical collections. This event is free and open to the public, sponsored by the Carolyn Benton Cockefair Chair. To register for the program, click here.
“This important gathering will be a deep dive into the intricacies and impact of Mesoamerican art,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, Director & CEO of the Nelson-Atkins. “Painted Worlds offers an unprecedented opportunity to view objects rarely seen in this country, and I anticipate a fascinating and enlightening conversation.”
Painted Worlds: Color and Culture in Mesoamerican Art explores deep connections among color, creation, and the cosmos through 3,000 years of history. It is on view at the Nelson-Atkins through Feb. 8, 2026.
Two discussion panels—“Color and Materiality in Mesoamerican Art” and “Color, Gender, and Identities in Mesoamerican Art”—will take place on the first official day of the symposium, Friday, February 6th, at UMKC’s Miller Nichols Learning Center, and will be followed by a reception and codex facsimile viewing. Day one will conclude with a Schutz Lecture Series keynote talk, “A Gleam in the Forest: Meaning and Material in Maya Color,” by Stephen D. Houston of Brown University.
Day two events (on February 7th) will be held at the Nelson-Atkins, and will include a panel on “Nature, Materials, and Metaphors,” a keynote from Byron Ellsworth Hamann titled “Jazz Age Maya: Mysteries of a Modern Prehispanic Book in 1930s Kansas City,” and a panel on “Leaving and Returning to Nature: Modern and Contemporary Artistic Practices.” Registration is free and open to the public for both full days of events.
To register for the symposium or for further details, visit: https://go.umkc.edu/painted-worlds/
Image credit: Figural Urn, Zapotec, 500–600 C.E. Clay and pigment, 25 x 25 x 12 1/2 inches (63.5 x 63.5 x 31.75 cm). The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust, 61-16.