I taught all day today. The students can now identify elephant, mammoth, hippo, sperm whale, narwhal, and warthog ivory from cross-section images. I became an “apple for the teacher” recipient for the first time. Where do they learn these things? After lunch, we had a birthday party for our translator; there was no singing, but a huge cake with white and pink frosting. I also went to a stationery store to buy supplies. Have you ever tried to describe a protractor with sign language?
Visitors from everywhere seem to show up at the Institute every day and are very impressed by what is happening here. They are especially interested in the engagement and collaborations of so many that have made the Institute a success. Today’s visitors were Germans and Greeks. The Greeks knew all about the Walters and asked, “Isn’t that the museum that’s working on the Archimedes Palimpsest?”
This evening, I went out on the town with all (or at least it seemed that way) the ex-pats in Erbil, to dinner and a trivia contest at the T-Bar. Do you know how many U.S. states border Canada? If you said 12, you are wrong. It’s 13.
Terry
Terry Drayman-Weisser is a guest blogger here on Culture Comment, during her trip to Iraq. She is the director of conservation and technical research, at the Walters Art Museum, and travels to Iraq to assist with conservation efforts there. In 2006, she welcomed conservators from Iraq, as they visited Baltimore to learn about restoring ancient ivories. Now, she’s sharing similar knowledge in Iraq.
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.