Program Videos

This program will highlight three of the most significant adaptations of Belle Greene’s life: Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray’s novel The Personal Librarian (2021), Juliane Hiam’s play Revels and Revelations (2010), and Epiphany “Big Piph” Morrow’s hip-hop track “The Ballad of Belle da Costa Greene” (2018).  Held Friday, November 15, 2024.

A conversation with Maria Popova and Caldecott-winning children’s book artist and author Sophie Blackall, lensed through Antoine de Saint- Exupéry's original watercolors for The Little Prince and Lewis Carroll’s diary entry from the day he first told the story of Wonderland to the real-life Alice. Held Tuesday, November 12, 2024.

The Morgan Drawing Institute is pleased to present a symposium held in conjunction with Far and Away: Drawings from the Clement C. Moore Collection on view June 28 through September 22, 2024. Held Friday, September 20, 2024.

A conversation with Maria Popova and poet Marie Howe, lensed through the original manuscripts of William Blake's Auguries of Innocence and Walt Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain!". Held Tuesday, October 15, 2024.

Complementing the opening of the exhibition Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy, this one-day scholarly symposium will bring together experts working on Belle Greene and/or the fields relevant to our understanding of her life and career, including African American history and literature, the history of museums and libraries, Medieval studies, art history, feminist bibliography, and book history. Held Friday, October 25, 2024.

Join Colin B. Bailey, Katharine J. Rayner Director of The Morgan Library & Museum, for a special opening night lecture that explores drawings by Rembrandt, Watteau, Degas, Renoir, and other highlights in the exhibition, Liberty to Imagination: Drawings from the Eveillard Gift. Held Friday, June 7, 2024.

The symposium is devoted to the drawings of the Tiepolo family, and is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Spirit and Invention: Drawings by Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo.

Presented on January 25, 2024 by the Morgan Drawing Institute.

The Sounds of the City as Heard by Jacob Steendam, the First Poet of New York

The early music ensemble Camerata Trajectina follows in Jacob Steendam’s (1616–1672) footsteps and presents Dutch music that once echoed off the walls of the houses of New Amsterdam.

Gail Levin's illustrated talk will draw extensively upon her interviews in the 1970s with Sonia Delaunay. She will illuminate the relationship of art by the Ukrainian-born French artist and works by the Swiss poet Cendrars to the American Synchromist painter Morgan Russell (1886–1953), contextualizing Cendrars's inscription to Russell on the copy of the 1913 book La prose du Transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France, featured in the Morgan’s exhibition Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961): Poetry Is Everything.

Niklaus Güdel, Director of the Ferdinand Hodler Institute, Geneva, proposes a comparison between Ferdinand Hodler and Mark Rothko based on their common interest in the Italian Renaissance. Held Thursday, September 14, 2023.

This new musical work for voice and birdroar instruments by composer Brent Michael Davids honors Nora Thompson Dean (1907–1984), a Lenape teacher and herbalist who dedicated her life to preserving Lenape culture.

At the first international symposium devoted to the artist, scholars explore Gillot’s work and career in the context of the Paris art world, uncovering his professional network and assessing his contribution to changing tastes and his impact on the next generation of artists. Held Wednesday, May 10, 2023.

Thomas Crow, Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art, NYU/Institute of Fine Arts, explores how Bridget Riley found the catalyst for her signature mode of art--along with its first, electrifying exposure--in a highly idiosyncratic venue. Held Thursday, June 29, 2023.

In this lecture, Jennifer Mundy, Thaw Senior Fellow and former Head of Art Historical Research, Tate, London, will explore what this book and its drawings reveal about Lijn’s development as an artist at a critical point in her career, and why she described Crossing Map as her ‘credo as a woman’. Held Friday, June 9, 2023.

Dr. Colin B. Bailey, Director of the Morgan Library & Museum, traces the development of J. Pierpont Morgan as a collector of rare books and manuscripts. Held Tuesday, July 11, 2023.

The symposium is devoted to the drawings of the artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) and takes place in conjunction with the exhibition Sublime Ideas: Drawings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi on view at the Morgan from March 10 through June 4, 2023 and is presented by the Morgan Drawing Institute. Held Friday, June 2, 2023.

In conjunction with the exhibition Uncommon Denominator: Nina Katchadourian at the Morgan, artists, writers, and musicians will respond to works in the exhibition through short performances. Held Sunday, February 26, 2023.

In conjunction with the exhibition Uncommon Denominator: Nina Katchadourian at the Morgan, artists, writers, and musicians will respond to works in the exhibition through short performances. Held Sunday, February 26, 2023.

Examining drawings from across Piranesi's career, John Marciari, Charles W. Engelhard Curator, will explore the distinctive aspects of Piranesi's graphic style and the use and reuse of drawings in his busy workshop.

Watch these exciting young musicians performing George Frideric Handel's Recorder Sonata in G minor, HWV 360; Krzysztof Penderecki's Three Miniatures; Johann Sebastian Bach's Selections from Goldberg Variations, BWV 988; Martin Lohse's Autumn Rain and Winter’s Tale; Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita for flute in A minor, BWV 1013; Mikołaj Majkusiak's The Elements; and Astor Piazzolla's Milonga Del Angel. Held Wednesday, February 22, 2023.

In conjunction with the exhibition Entrance to the Mind: Drawings by George Condo in the Morgan Library & Museum, artist George Condo discusses the role of drawing in his practice and his interest in the art of the past with Isabelle Dervaux, Acquavella Curator and Head of Department, Modern & Contemporary Drawings. Held Thursday, February 23, 2023.

Philip Palmer, the Robert H. Taylor Curator and Department Head of Literary and Historical Manuscripts, takes an in-depth look at the draft manuscript and original artwork for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince.

Held Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Sidney Babcock, the Jeannette and Jonathan Rosen Curator and Department Head of the Department of Ancient Western Asian Seals and Tablets and curator of She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia ca. 3400-2000 B.C., provides an overview of the exhibition’s themes and highlights several key objects.

In celebration of Pride, the Morgan presents two lectures on queer artists Rick Barton and Ray Johnson. Held Friday, June 24, 2022.

This symposium will feature presentations from an international group of experts, focusing on Holbein’s varied contributions to the development of sixteenth-century art. Held Friday, May 6, 2022.

Hans Holbein the Younger’s portrait of Sir Thomas More, painted in 1527, is one of the pinnacles of the artist’s career. Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, The Frick Collection, explores the friendship between artist and sitter. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Holbein: Capturing Character. Held Thursday, March 17, 2022.

In conjunction with Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire, 800–1500, Sharon Liberman Mintz, Curator of Jewish Art at The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary, and Adam S. Cohen, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Toronto, will consider the production, use, decoration, and meaning of Hebrew illuminated books made in Central Europe between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries

This popular lunchtime series features some of the most exciting young musicians performing today. Join pianist Harmony Zhu performing Frédéric Chopin's Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49, followed by the rarely heard Bedřich Smetana's Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15 featuring cellist Jonathan Swensen and violinist Paul Huang. Held Wednesday, February 16, 2022.

To celebrate the exhibition Van Eyck to Mondrian: 300 Years of Collecting in Dresden, join distinguished cellist and director of the Dresden Music Festival Jan Vogler, and accomplished violinist Mira Wang, in highlights of a concert featuring Alessandro Rolla's Duo for violin and cello in B-flat Major, Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite No. 3 for cello solo in C Major, BWV 1009, and Hanns Eisler's Duet for violin and cello, Op. 7/1 (1924). Held Thursday, November 18, 2021.

Celebrate the opening of the exhibition Van Eyck to Mondrian: 300 Years of Collecting in Dresden with Stephanie Buck, Director of the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett, who explores the history of the Dresden collection and share insights into a number of exceptional drawings on view in the exhibition.

Held Friday, October 22, 2021.