Conference Speakers
Professor Raoul Smith, Conference Chair
Professor Smith, formerly professor of Linguistics and of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Northwestern University, is Research Fellow at the Museum of Russian Icons, as well as the founder of the Center of Icon Studies and the founder and first editor of the Journal of Icon Studies. Professor Smith organized and chaired the Museum’s first conference Icons and Iconology in 2015 in conjunction with the Center for Iconographic Studies at the University of Rijeka, Croatia.
Dr. Asen Kirin, Keynote Speaker
Asen Kirin’s original training, in Sofia where he was born, as well as at Moscow University, was in Slavonic philology with a concentration on Cyrillic epigraphy. He holds an M.A. from Vanderbilt and a PhD from Princeton University and has received two fellowships from Dumbarton Oaks/Harvard University. He teaches courses in Late Antique, Byzantine and Russian art and architecture at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia. His early publications dealt with Post-Byzantine frescoes and their inscriptions and with late antique architecture and urbanism. He has written on the interplay of late Byzantine architecture, mural painting, and natural landscape, and has researched the changing perceptions of Byzantine art, as well as the different ways in which Europeans and Americans engage the ancient and medieval cultural heritage. Since 2017 he has served as the Parker Curator of Russian Art at the Georgia Museum of Art.
Drs Simon Morsink, Keynote Speaker
Starting in 1985 Simon Morsink studied Art History and Slavic Studies in Leiden (the Netherlands) and Leuven (Belgium). In 1991 he obtained his master’s degree with a dissertation on Sergius of Radonezh, founder of the Trinity Monastery near Moscow. Since 1994 he and his brother Hugo Morsink have been running the Morsink Icon Gallery in Amsterdam, which was founded in 1977 by their father Jan Morsink. As an art historian, he organized various icon exhibitions in museums in the Netherlands and published several catalogues such as “The Power of Icons” (2006) and “Collecting Old Icons” (2012). As an art dealer and icon expert, he is involved in building up several international private collections of icons, and was instrumental in the acquisition of important icons by the Icon Museum in Recklinghausen (Germany), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, MA.
Dr. Amy Adams, Moderator
Amy Adams is Professor of Russian Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. She received her B.A. in Russian Language and Literature at Dartmouth College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. On the topic of Russian icons, she co-edited and contributed to the volume Framing Mary: The Mother of God in Modern, Revolutionary, and Post-Soviet Russia. She has also published articles and book chapters on the topic of icons in Russian literature. Her current research includes the creation of iconic space both in Russian literature and in contemporary Russian life.
Dr. Clemena Antonova, Moderator
Clemena Antonova is an art historian, specializing in the art of the icon. Among her latest publications are her book Visual Thought in Russian Religious Philosophy: Pavel Florensky’s Theory of the Icon (Routledge, 2020) and her contribution, “The Icon and the Visual Arts at the Time of the Russian Religious Renaissance,” Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought (OUP, 2020). She also guest-edited a special journal issue, “The Science of Art: Visuality at an Interdisciplinary Crossroads,” Leonardo (Just accepted, 2020) and is preparing another one, “Stories of Art: Alternative Art Histories from Russia.” At present, she is the Research Director of the Eurasia in Global Dialogue Programme at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.
Dr. Roann Barris
Roann Barris, PhD, is a professor of Art History at Radford University whose research has focused on Russian constructivist stage design. Presently she is hoping to write a book on American exhibitions of Russian art in the 20th century. This presentation is connected to that project.
Dr. Derrick Cartwright
Derrick R. Cartwright is Associate Professor of Art History in the Department of Art, Architecture + Art History at the University of San Diego. He is also the Director of University Galleries at USD and the Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Timken Museum of Art. Cartwright has lectured throughout the world and published on a wide variety of American art and transatlantic cultural exchange topics. His previous museum experience includes directorial service at the Musée d’Art Américain Giverny, Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, San Diego Museum of Art, and Seattle Art Museum. Recent publications include Robert Henri’s California: Realism, Race, and Region 1914-1925 (2014) and D. Y. Cameron: Mystic Beauty and Sacred Space (2018). Cartwright’s exhibition Fitz Henry Lane in Castine, Maine will take place in 2023 at the Timken Museum of Art.
Amy Consalvi
Amy Consalvi is the Director of Education & Visitor Services at the Museum of Russian Icons. As an experienced educator specializing in visitor-centered and object-based learning, she develops engaging programming for a wide variety of audiences. She looks for new and exciting ways to connect audiences to the Museum’s collection. She received her M.A. in Museum Education from Tufts University and her B.A. in American Studies from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. She previously held positions at the Concord Museum and the Lowell National Historical Park.
Clare Elliott
Clare Elliott is Associate Research Curator at the Menil Collection, Houston, where she has organized exhibitions and contributed to catalogues since 2003. Elliott received her M.A. in the history of art from Williams College in Massachusetts.
Laura Garrity-Arquitt
Laura Garrity-Arquitt has been the Registrar at the Museum of Russian Icons since 2010. She graduated from Regis College in 2008 having studied History and Museum Studies.
Dmitry Gurevich
Independent researcher Dmitry Gurevich specializes in the research and attribution of the artifacts pertaining to the Christian faith. He co-curated the exhibitions Opulence Rediscovered: The Romanov Liturgical Silver (2019) and Tradition & Opulence: Easter in Imperial Russia (2020) at the Museum of Russian Icons, presented at academic conferences, and authored scholarly texts for books, catalogs, journals, and museum publications.
Dr. Louise Hardiman
Dr. Louise Hardiman is an independent scholar specializing in Russian and Soviet art and the history of British-Russian cultural exchange. Her publications include two co-edited volumes: Modernism and the Spiritual in Russian Art: New Perspectives (2017) and Abramtsevo and its Legacies: Neo-national Art, Craft, and Design (2019). In 2021 she will be teaching a course on Modernism in Russian and Soviet Art at the University of Cambridge.
James L. Jackson
James Jackson is President and C.E.O. of Jackson’s International Auctioneers and Appraisers of Antiques and Fine Art since 1993. With headquarters in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Jackson’s has sold and appraised hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of fine art and antiques since it was founded in 1969. Jackson’s holds numerous world record auction prices on many items in a multitude of fields. Mr. Jackson has written widely and lectured coast-to-coast on the subject of fine art and antiques and is recognized Internationally in the area of Russian art including icons and decorative arts as well as European paintings and sculpture (circa 1500-1900) and with an emphasis on ecclesiastical items. He has traveled extensively visiting over 20 countries including numerous trips to Russia. James was the author of the icon section of the International Society of Appraisers Fine Arts Course and has been guest curator at numerous museums throughout the U.S. in conjunction with various Russian exhibitions. Mr. Jackson has a working knowledge of Old Church Slavonic and Russian and a familiarity with the German language. James is married to artist Tatiana Anatolievna-Jackson and together, with their four children (ages 14-25) make their home in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where they are both active volunteers in local and state civic and philanthropic affairs.
Dr. Mihaela D. Leonida
Professor of Chemistry at Fairleigh Dickinson University, in Teaneck, New Jersey, Dr. Leonida teaches Biochemistry, Enzymology, and Science and Art. She has authored and co-authored 12 books and chapters in books, 75 journal papers, and has presented at numerous national and international venues, including at the Museum of Russian Icons in 2012 and at the Center for Icon Studies’ first conference in 2015. Her interests are broad, including early iconographers and their secrets, proteins, and nanomaterials. She is on the roster of Fulbright Specialists for Conservation of Cultural Heritage.
Dr. Francesco Lovino
Francesco Lovino, PhD (2015), Università degli studi di Padova, is Associate fellow of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies of the Masaryk University in Brno. His research interests include Byzantine illumination, medieval cartography, historiography of art history, and the reception of Byzantine art and imagery during the nineteenth and twentieth century. Lovino is coeditor of two volumes on art historiography Byzantine Studies as a Bridge between the Worlds (Brno, 2018) and Orient oder Rom? (Rome, 2018) in the series From Kondakov to Hans Belting Library. He is currently writing a monograph on the Exposition internationale d’art byzantin held in Paris in 1931.
Catherine Mannick, Moderator
Catherine Mannick is an angel investor and former international lawyer with 20 years of experience representing US businesses in the former Soviet Union. She currently chairs the Advisory Board of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University and is a Trustee of the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Massachusetts. Catherine earned her undergraduate degree in Russian Studies from Yale University and her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She also earned an M.A. in history from Harvard, where she was a tutor in the History and Literature Department, focusing on early 20th century Russian and Soviet history.
Dr. John McCarthy
Following his education at Cambridge University (MA LLB) career Australian diplomat John McCarthy was appointed ambassador to Vietnam, Mexico, Thailand, United States, Indonesia, Japan, and India. Originally a barrister in London, he worked with Shearman and Sterling in New York. Since retiring from the Foreign Service, he has been National President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and has worked with Murdoch and Griffith universities, from which he holds honorary doctorates. John is currently an adviser to Asialink at Melbourne University and to Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, Tokyo. He has been interested in icons since the mid-eighties and his collection was exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria in 2014.
Nicholas Nicholson
Nicholas B.A. Nicholson was recently appointed curator of the Russian History Museum at Jordanville, New York, and is a scholar of Russian fine and decorative art. He was a co-curator of the MoRI exhibition Tradition & Opulence: Easter in Imperial Russia (2020), and curator of MoRI’s Two Imperial Icons on the 1908 wedding of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Younger (2017). His most recent book, Michael Romanov: Brother of the Last Tsar, Diaries and Letters 1916-1918 was published last year by Academica Press.
Dr. Ginevra Odone
Assistant lecturer in the History of Modern Art at Aix-Marseille Université, Dr. Odone completed her double PhD in Art History on the collection of abbot and lawyer Agostino Mariotti (1724-1806) who lived in Rome in the middle of the 18th century. Her research includes the history of collections, the display of art in private collections, and the art market. She has participated in various conferences and published several articles on the Roman art market and antiquities (ArtItalies, Symbolae Antiquariae, and Studi sul Settecento romano among others) and collaborated with various institutions in Paris and Rome (Musée du Louvre, Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, and Museo Napoleonico). She is also member of the Board of Directors of the Association des Historiens de l’Art Italien (AHAI) in Paris.
Dr. Georgi Parpulov
Dr. Georgi Parpulov studied History at the University of Sofia and Art History at the University of Chicago. He did curatorial work at the Walters Art Museum (Baltimore) and the British Museum (London), and taught at the University of Oxford. Dr. Parpulov works at the University of Birmingham in the UK and his latest publication is a book on Bulgarian icons (Sofia: Methodivs Books, 2021).
Kent dur Russell
Kent dur Russell is the Executive Director of the Museum of Russian Icons. Russell met museum founder Gordon Lankton in 1995, and in 2001 he presented Shields of Faith at the Higgins Armory Museum, Worcester, MA, the first museum exhibition of Mr. Lankton’s icons collection. Starting in 2006, Russell helped Gordon Lankton conceptualize, design, and build the Museum of Russian Icons and accompanied him on numerous trips internationally in search of Russian icons. Mr. Russell holds MA.s from both Trinity College Dublin and CCNY in the history of art.
Dr. Wendy Salmond
Wendy Salmond received her PhD at the University of Texas at Austin and now teaches art history at Chapman University in Orange, CA. Her publications on Russian art include Arts and Crafts in Late Imperial Russia, Treasures into Tractors: The Selling of Russia’s Cultural Heritage, 1918-1938, Tradition in Transition: Russian Icons in the Age of the Romanovs, and most recently, “Eternity in Low Earth Orbit: Icons on the International Space Station.” She is also editor of the Journal of Icon Studies published by the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, MA. Her current book project is Russian Icons in America. The Fate of Orthodox Painting, 1917-39.
Ivan Samarine
Ivan Samarine was born in Vienna in 1964, and educated in England. Together with the late Johnny Stuart, he founded the Russian department at Sotheby’s, and helped to establish the bi-annual Russian sales which continue to this day. He is an art consultant and founder of the London-based Russian Art Consultancy agency and co-author of Light, Water and Sky: the Paintings of Ivan Aivazovsky and Seas, Cities and Dreams: the Paintings of Ivan Aivazovsky. Specialising in icons and Russian 19th and early 20th century paintings, he has written and lectured on the subject both in the UK and abroad. In April 2021 he was appointed Consultant to Sotheby’s for Icons and East Christian Art.
Dr. Christine Sciacca
Christine Sciacca is Associate Curator of European Art, 300-1400 CE at the Walters Art Museum. She received her PhD, MPhil, and MA in Art History from Columbia University and a BA in Art History from Cornell University. Christine was a curator of illuminated manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum for ten years, and has worked at The Met Cloisters and The British Library.
Professor Franklin Sciacca, Moderator
Franklin Sciacca is Professor Emeritus of Russian Language and Literature, Eastern Slavic Folklore and Religion, and Food Studies, at Hamilton College (Clinton, New York). He has lectured extensively on Orthodox iconography and East Slavic folklore. He has contributed articles to Slavic Review, Folklorica (Journal of the Slavic, East European and Eurasian Folklore Association), Nabokov Almanac, and Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. Sciacca’s research interests include the history of Pochayiv Monastery and the politics of religion in western Ukraine, as well as the ritual function of textiles (rushnyky) in Ukrainian folkways. He was a faculty member at Hamilton College from 1984 through 2019, and earned his degrees from Columbia University.
Dr. Emily L. Spratt
Emily L. Spratt is a Byzantine and Renaissance art historian and data scientist. She received her doctorate from Princeton University and wrote her thesis on the legacy of Byzantium in the early modern period, with particular attention placed on the icons produced in Crete and the Ionian Islands. Currently a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University, her research encompasses the fields of art history, philosophy and ethics, visual culture and media studies, applied computer vision science, data science, and the law. Also a consultant, Dr. Spratt advises companies, institutions, and governments on image-based emerging technologies and the ethics of data science.
Dr. Deborah Stein
Independent art historian Deborah Stein specializes in eighteenth and nineteenth-century American and European fine arts and visual culture and in the history of collecting and museums. She holds a PhD from Boston University in the history of art and architecture, has taught American and Italian Renaissance art, and has also been a lecturer at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston since 2006.
Dr. Sir Richard Temple
Sir Richard Temple, Bt., PhD founded the Temple Gallery in 1959. He has sold icons to the British Museum, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Timken Art Gallery in San Diego, California, the Museum of Russian Icons, and the Museum of the Patriarch’s Collection in the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Moscow. He advised collector Eric Bradley, whose icons passed into the museum of the Menil Foundation in Houston, Texas, and he formed the collection of the late Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III. His books include Icons and the Mystical Origins of Christianity (Element Books, 1990, 1992, Luzac Oriental, 2001) and Icons: Divine Beauty, (Saqi Books, 2004)
Dr. Justin Willson
Dr. Justin Willson, lecturer in Medieval and Byzantine Art at Princeton University, received his PhD in January 2021 from Princeton where he studied Byzantine and early Russian art. Justin is currently working on a book which examines art discourse in Muscovy in the early modern period. Justin’s publications have been published in a variety of journals, including Journal of the History of Ideas, Res: Anthropology & Aesthetics, and Studies in Iconography.
Dr. Masha Zavialova
Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Maria Zavialova received her doctorate in English and Cultural Studies from the University of Minnesota. As chief curator for the Museum of Russian Art (TMORA) she has curated more than fifty exhibitions since 2008. Working closely with the collection of museum founder Ray Johnson, she curated such exhibitions from the Johnson collection as Road North (2010), Shades of Red: The Evolution of Early Soviet Painting (2011), From Thaw to Meltdown – Soviet Paintings of the 1950s-1980s (2012), Women in Soviet Art (2013), Art of Collecting (2014, presenting a chronological and thematic study of the Johnson collection), Romance in Soviet Art (2015), Valerian Formozov (2016), Born in the USSR (2017), Art in Conflict (2018), and Body in Soviet Art (2019). She also works on independent curatorial projects and writes for art catalogues. She is an award-winning translator of African-American women’s writing into Russian, a co-director of a folk performance group, and a board member of the American Siberian Educational Foundation.