Maggie Bell, Associate Curator, John Griswold, Head of Conservation and Installations and Lakshika Senarath Gamage, Assistant Curator [photo credit: Norton Simon Museum]
On Saturday, Nov. 15, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Norton Simon Museum Theater, the curators will join John Griswold, Head of Conservation and Installations, for “Gold: A Conversation about Making and Meaning,” exploring discoveries behind “Gold: Enduring Power, Sacred Craft,” the museum’s first major exhibition uniting European and Asian art through gold.
“We systematically went through all the objects that had gold as a medium,” Bell, the museum’s Associate Curator, explained. “At the same time we started thinking about the way gold as a metal interacted with other medium and also what gold means symbolically, even to representations of gold in thread or in paint. There are so many ways to approach this subject.”
The exhibition, which opened Oct. 24, features approximately 60 works from Europe, Asia, North Africa and North America, spanning from around 1000 B.C.E. to the 20th century.
“One of the most interesting things I learned is a very deep appreciation for those artists who used gold in magical ways we would never even have imagined,” Senarath Gamage said. “That level of technical expertise and finesse they had — and that they did by hand — is something that still amazes me.”
The exhibition and panel discussion are part of the museum’s 50th anniversary commemorations.
“Gold: A Conversation about Making and Meaning” will run on Saturday, Nov. 15 at 5-6 p.m. Norton Simon Museum, 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 449-6840 or visit https://www.nortonsimon.org/calendar/2025/fall-2025/Gold-A-Conversation-about-Making-and-Meaning-11-15-2025-500pm#2025-11-15. Ticket prices: Included with general museum admission: $20 for adults, $15 for seniors, free for students 18 and under with valid ID.
