The (Re)cited Garden: Chinese Gardens, Memory, and Identity, 10/16/25

The Verostko Center for the Arts and the Loe Center for China Studies at Saint Vincent College were pleased to host a free public lecture by Carol Brash, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Art History at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, on the topic “The (Re)cited Garden.” 

​Dr. Brash’s talk examined how designers of Chinese-style gardens in the United States confront the tension between historical memory and contemporary identity, weaving together art, history, and cross-cultural belonging. ​

Beyond Paris / British Impressionists in the Rusinko Kakos Collection / Jennifer Thompson, Ph.D.

Dr. Thompson’s lecture explores how British painters before World War I absorbed and transformed Impressionism’s focus on color, atmosphere, visible brushwork, and modern life - creating works with both local character and global resonance, illustrated with selections from the Rusinko Kakos Collection. The lecture questions “What is Impressionism?” in light of its international spread from pioneering French artists such as Monet, Pissarro, Degas, and Renoir.  A recording of the lecture is now available on the Saint Vincent College YouTube channel.
​
Dr. Thompson earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Since joining the European Painting and Sculpture Department in 1999, she has played an essential role in interpreting, displaying and developing the museum’s collections of European art. She has published widely and curated many notable exhibitions, including The Impressionist’s Eye (2019), Old Masters Now: Celebrating the Johnson Collection (2017), Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting (2015), Van Gogh Up Close (2012) and Late Renoir (2010). She is also curator of the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia.