CultureComment

Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum since 1994, has been with the Baltimore institution for more than 20 years. A native of Minnesota, Gary received his B.A. from Carleton College in 1967 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1976 before working as Senior Associate for Byzantine Art Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.

An internationally known medieval art scholar, Gary has curated many significant exhibitions at the Walters, and has published and lectured on the early Christian pilgrimage, medicine and magic, icons, the Shroud of Turin, neuroscience and aesthetics, and Elvis Presley. His most recent book, Early Byzantine Pilgrimage Art, will be published in 2010 by Dumbarton Oaks; he is currently working on a book-length study titled Pilgrimage to Graceland.