THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ANNOUNCES
TRAVELING THE SILK ROAD: ANCIENT PATHWAY TO THE MODERN WORLD
EXHIBITION ON THE GREATEST TRADE ROUTE OF ANCIENT TIMES
OPENS NOVEMBER 14, 2009 AND REMAINS ON VIEW UNTIL AUGUST 15, 2010
New York, September 11, 2009—The American Museum of Natural History today announced a major new exhibition, Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World, which opens November 14, 2009 and remains on view through August 15, 2010, before traveling to other venues nationally and internationally. This intriguing exhibition brings to life one of the greatest trading routes in human history, showcasing the goods, cultures, and technologies from four representative cities: Xi’an, China’s Tang Dynasty capital; Turfan, a verdant oasis and trading outpost; Samarkand, home of prosperous merchants who thrived on the caravan trade; and Baghdad, a fertile hub of commerce and scholarship that became the intellectual center of the era.
The exhibition is curated by Mark Norell, Chairman and Curator-in-Charge of the Division of Paleontology at the Museum, with guest co-curator William Honeychurch, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Yale University, and consultant Denise Leidy, curator of the Department of Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Presenting Sponsor of Traveling the Silk Road is MetLife Foundation.
Additional support has been provided by Mary and David Solomon.
The Silk Road Project Residency is generously supported by Rosalind P. Walter.
Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (www.amnh.org), in collaboration with Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, Roma, Italy and Codice Idee per la cultura srl, Torino, Italy; The National Museum of Australia, Canberra, Australia and Art Exhibitions Australia; and the National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, Taiwan and United Daily News, Taipei, Taiwan.
“For centuries, the Silk Road was a vast and busy network bridging Asia and the Mediterranean region, where people met, transported goods, and conducted trade, and in the process shared culture, religion, and technology,” said Ellen V. Futter, President of the American Museum of Natural History. “In this exhibition, we invite the public to take a journey with us along this critical cultural pathway, which might be thought of as the internet of the ancient world. Visitors will see spectacular sights, smell the spices, marvel at the silk, and hear the stories and music of the great ancient civilizations of Asia and the Middle East.”
Visitors will embark on an unparalleled journey, exploring commerce, communication, and cultural exchange from the far reaches of China through the cities and empires of Central and West Asia from A.D. 600 to 1200. Children will become world travelers as well, collecting special stamps in Silk Road “passports” issued to them at the exhibition entrance, smelling real spices in the spice market, observing live silkworms, and enjoying live musical performances.
On Sunday afternoons, visitors will be treated to live performances brought together by the Silk Road Project, a not-for-profit artistic, cultural and educational organization founded in 1998 by cellist Yo-Yo Ma that takes inspiration from the historic Silk Road trading route as a modern metaphor for multicultural and interdisciplinary exchange.
Visitors will watch live silkworms spinning cocoons in the section devoted to Xi’an; wander through a replica of the desert markets of Turfan, complete with the sights, sounds, and smells of exotic spices, luxury goods, and precious raw materials; meet a life-sized camel model in Samarkand and explore the ancient skills of papermaking and metalwork. In Baghdad, visitors will track the “stars” using a working model of an Arab astrolabe and discover the achievements of Islamic sciences and engineering.
Throughout the exhibition, hands-on activities and interactives will bring to life the golden age of the Silk Road, when the extraordinary collaboration of peoples and cultures influenced the civilized world for hundreds of years.
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
The American Museum of Natural History is one of the world’s preeminent scientific, educational, and cultural institutions. Since its founding in 1869, the Museum has advanced its global mission to explore and interpret human cultures and the natural world through a wide-reaching program of scientific research, education, and exhibitions. The Museum accomplishes this ambitious goal through its extensive facilities and resources. The institution houses 45 permanent exhibition halls, state-of-the-art research laboratories, one of the largest natural history libraries in the Western Hemisphere, and a permanent collection of more than 30 million specimens and cultural artifacts. With a scientific staff of more than 200, the Museum supports research divisions in Anthropology, Paleontology, Invertebrate and Vertebrate Zoology, and the Physical Sciences. The Museum shares its treasures and discoveries with more than four million on-site visitors from around the world each year. It’s produced exhibitions and Space Shows can currently be seen in venues on five continents reaching an audience of millions. In addition, the Museum’s Web site, www.amnh.org, extends its collections, exhibitions, and educational programs to millions more beyond the Museum’s walls.
Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (www.amnh.org), in collaboration with Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, Roma, Italy and Codice Idee per la cultura srl, Torino, Italy; the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, Australia and Art Exhibitions Australia; and the National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, Taiwan and United Daily News, Taipei, Taiwan.
| The Presenting Sponsor of Traveling the Silk Road is |  |
Additional support has been provided by Mary and David Solomon.
The Silk Road Project residency is generously supported by Rosalind P. Walter.
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