Fosca Maddaloni-Yu, the Euchlin D. Reeves Curatorial Fellow in Ceramic Art at Washington and Lee University, will deliver a lecture titled “150 Years of Art & Counting” Wednesday, Feb. 18, at noon in the Watson Galleries.
The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited, and registration is required: https://calendly.com/mwlu/art-museum-moment-with-dr-maddaloni-yu?month=2026-02.
The lecture is part of the Art Museum and Galleries at W&L’s “Lunch and Learn” series, which this year centers around how artists and objects reveal environmental, cultural and historical connections. Lunch will be provided at 11:30 a.m. before the talk.
In her talk, Maddaloni-Yu will discuss a range of ceramic works, including a Neolithic jar that highlights some of the earliest ceramic technologies in China, porcelain fragments fused with coral and barnacle growth that bear traces of centuries spent on the ocean floor and a punch bowl that embodies the complex cultural negotiations at the heart of the Canton trade. The session will include a sneak peek viewing of three ceramic objects to be featured in the upcoming exhibition celebrating 150 years of the W&L art collection.
Maddaloni-Yu is in her first year at W&L after serving as a visiting assistant professor at Brown University, where she earned a Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture. She has also been a lecturer at Boston University and an adjunct instructor at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in East Asian studies from Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza (Italy) and a Master of Arts from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
The Art Museum and Galleries at W&L are open to the public Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. To learn more about the 2025-2026 exhibitions, visit the Art Museum and Galleries’ website: https://artmuseum.wlu.edu.
