Join us Wednesday, February 17 for a screening of Buddhist Art: A Fragile Inheritance at UBC’s Frederic Wood theatre.
Free — no registration required. Click here for a map to the theatre.
The spread of Buddhism from India throughout Asia has left a legacy of truly great art. This sumptuous new film by award-winning filmmakers Mark Stewart Productions tells the story of that fragile inheritance through the treasures of Bhutan and Ladakh in the Himalayas and the Dunhuang Grottoes on the Silk Road in China. Efforts to save valuable wall paintings in these regions are contrasted with imminent threats of fire, flood, tourists, and devotional practice. The film focuses on the conservation work undertaken by the Courtauld Institute of Art (University of London) in collaboration with the Dunhuang Academy, Getty Conservation Institute and Bhutan’s Department of Culture. It also highlights the Courtauld’s efforts to promote awareness and understanding of the issues involved in conserving Buddhist art, through teaching and through the Buddhist Art Forum, a major conference sponsored by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation.
Professor David Park is Director of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Art and 
Conservation at The Courtauld, including its MA program and related public events such as the Buddhist Art Forum of 2012 (published in 2013 as Art of Merit: Studies in Buddhist Art and Conservation). He is also Director of the Conservation of Wall Painting Department at The Courtauld, which is responsible for teaching MA and PhD students from around the world, and for conservation and research projects in Bhutan, India and elsewhere. His art-historical publications focus mainly on western medieval art, the most recent co-authored book – Wall Paintings of Eton – being awarded the 2013 William M. B. Berger Prize for British Art History.
The Getty Conservation Institute works internationally to advance conservation practice in the visual arts—broadly interpreted to include objects, collections, architecture, and sites. The Institute serves the conservation community through scientific research, education and training, model field projects, and the dissemination of the results of both its own work and the work of others in the field. In all its endeavors, the GCI focuses on the creation and delivery of knowledge that will benefit the professional conservation community through scientific research, education and training, model field projects, and the dissemination of the results of both its own work and the work of others in the field. In all its endeavors, the GCI focuses on the creation and delivery of knowledge that will benefit the professionals and organizations responsible for the conservation of the world’s cultural heritage.
The Getty Research Institute is an operating program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. It serves education in the broadest sense by increasing knowledge and understanding about art and its history through advanced research. The Research Institute provides intellectual leadership through its research, exhibition, and publication programs and provides service to a wide range of scholars worldwide through residencies, fellowships, online resources, and a Research Library. The Research Library—housed in the 201,000-square-foot Research Institute building designed by Richard Meier—is one of the largest art and architecture libraries in the world. The general library collections (secondary sources) include almost 900,000 volumes of books, periodicals, and auction catalogues encompassing the history of Western art and related fields in the humanities. The Research Library’s special collections include rare books, artists’ journals, sketchbooks, architectural drawings and models, photographs, and archival materials.
The Dunhuang Academy is a national institution in China with a mission to conserve, manage, and research the Mogao Grottoes, a World Heritage Site, as well as the Yulin Grottoes and the Western Thousand Buddha Grottoes, nationally protected sites. Founded in 1944 as the National Dunhuang Art Research Institute, the Dunhuang Academy today has as its guiding mandate conservation, research, and public promotion. Dunhuang Academy also has been granted as National Research Center for Conservation of Ancient Wall Painting and Earthen Sites. More information at http://en.dha.ac.cn/.
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