Figural Urn, Zapotec, 500–600 C.E.  Clay and pigment, 25 x 25 x 12 1/2 inches (63.5 x 63.5 x 31.75 cm). The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust, 61-16

February 6–7, 2026

Hosted by the University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), co-organized with The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, in association with the  Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art featured exhibition, Painted Worlds: Color and Culture in Mesoamerican Art.

Friday, February 6, At Miller Nichols Learning Center, UMKC
Saturday, February 7, At The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Register to Attend the Symposium
Cost: Free
Download PDF Version of the Program
View the list of additional pre-symposium lectures and events

PROGRAM DAY 1
Friday, February 6, 2026

UMKC, Volker Campus
Miller Nichols Learning Center
800 E 51st St, Kansas City, MO 64110  

Before 5pm, limited metered parking is available in the lot to the north of the Miller Nichols Learning Center. There is also ample metered parking on the 5th floor of the Cherry Street Garage. Metered lots are designated by a yellow marker on the UMKC Campus Parking Map. UMKC Metered Parking requires the use of the AMP Park mobile app or website.

After 5pm, free parking is available in the lots to the north of the Miller Nichols Learning Center for the Friday evening events. This applies to the lots labeled 4, 40, and 38 on the UMKC Campus Parking Map.

2:00–3:30 pm, UMKC, Miller Nichols Learning Center, room 352

Welcome Remarks

PANEL 1: COLOR AND MATERIALITY IN MESOAMERICAN ART
Chair: Isabel Oleas, Assistant Professor of Art History, KCAI

Carlos López Puértolas, Postdoctoral researcher, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas (IIE), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Crafting Color: Material Choices and Painting Technology at El Tajín (Veracruz)

John Hirx, J. Bernard Kester Head Objects Conservator, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Maya Engobes: Engineered ceramic paints

Alyce de Carteret, Assistant Curator of Art of the Ancient Americas, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
“Classic Maya Pots: Palettes and Politics”

Angela Ejarque Gallardo, Postdoctoral researcher, Coordinación Nacional de Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural, CNCPC-INAH
Six Centuries of Color at Palenque: Pictorial Change and Materiality Across Time

Discussion

BREAK 3:30–3:45 pm

3:45–5:00 pm, UMKC, Miller Nichols Learning Center, room 352
PANEL 2: COLOR, GENDER, AND IDENTITIES IN MESOAMERICAN ART
Co-Chairs: Alberto Villamandos, Associate Professor of Spanish, World Languages and Cultures, UMKC, Viviana Grieco, Professor of History and Latin American and Latinx Studies, UMKC

John F. Schwaller, Jay Kislak Chair in the Study of the History and Culture of the Early Americas, Library of Congress (2025-26), Research Associate, University of Kansas
Chicomecoatl, Why is a maize goddess colored red?

Guillermina Peña, University of Kansas, Ph.D. candidate
Nahuala: Transtemporality in the Representation of the Female Body in Mesoamerican Art and Culture

Norma E. Cantú, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities
Threads of Memory and Identity: Chicanas Wearing Huipiles

Discussion

Friday, 5:00–6:15 pm UMKC, Miller Nichols Learning Center
Special Collections, 3rd Floor
RECEPTION AND CODEX FACSIMILE VIEWING

ON VIEW:
Digital exhibition and installation, Miller Nichols Learning Center
First Floor, South Side
Unfolding Mixtec Histories
A graphic exhibition featuring the Codex Colombino, a Mixtec manuscript from Antigüedades Mexicanas: Láminas, a rare 1892 volume created for Mexico’s presentation at the Madrid Exposición Histórico-Americana, accompanied by digital content exploring how Indigenous heritage was framed as both a source of pride and a tool for modern nation-building during the Porfiriato.

6:30 pm UMKC: Miller Nichols Learning Center auditorium, room 151
KEYNOTE: MARILYN T. AND BYRON C. SHUTZ LECTURE

Stephen D. Houston, Dupee Family Professor of Social Science, Professor of Anthropology, Brown University.
A Gleam in the Forest: Meaning and Material in Maya Color

Colors alone or in combination had profound meaning for the ancestral Maya. They also had a history of use and a rich vocabulary to describe their many nuances. This talk explores a world where color invoked perceptions of materials, directions, and the bold palette of a natural or built setting.

PROGRAM, DAY 2
Saturday, February 7, 2026

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Atkins Auditorium
4525 Oak Street, Kansas City, MO, 64111

The Nelson-Atkins parking garage is located on Oak Street, on the west side of the museum and just south of 45th Street. Parking for the general public is $14 per vehicle. Nelson-Atkins members park for free.

10:30 am–12:00 pm, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
PANEL 3: NATURE, MATERIALS, AND METAPHORS
Chair: Brent E. Metz, Director, Center of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences Anthropology, KU

Rong Lin, PhD student, University Illinois Chicago
Adorning Watery Stone: Liquid Dynamic of Precious Stones in Late Postclassic Central Mexico

Jacob Welch, Adjunct Instructor, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, Seton Hall University
Painting the Rain: Pigment Documentation on Modeled Stucco Architecture at Ucanha, Yucatán, Mexico

Philip T. Duncan, Associate Teaching Professor of Linguistics, Affiliate faculty, Indigenous Studies, University of Kansas
Painting worlds through language: Bodying the landscape in Me’phaa

Joseph Hartman, Associate Professor, Art History, The University of Missouri, Kansas City
Axis Mundi: Art, Space, and Ceiba Trees in the Formation of Mesoamerican and Afro-Atlantic Worlds

Discussion

LUNCH BREAK, 12:00–2:00 pm

2:00–2:50 pm, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
KEYNOTE BERNARDIN-HASKELL LECTURE

Byron Ellsworth Hamann, Invited Professor in the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania, Curatorial consultant on Painted Worlds exhibition

Jazz Age Maya: Mysteries of a Modern Prehispanic Book in 1930s Kansas City

In 1932, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art purchased a Maya hieroglyphic codex. Unfortunately, instead of being centuries old, the book was a work of then-contemporary art, one of many modern prehispanic books created for the global art marked in the early years of the twentieth century. Like an Agatha Christie mystery from the same period, this detective story looks from prehispanic traditions to nineteenth-century art schools to Jazz Age aesthetics and asks: was Mexican artist Genaro López guilty of this forgery?

3:00–4:00 pm, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
PANEL 4: LEAVING AND RETURNING TO NATURE: MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ARTISTIC PRACTICES
Chair: Cristina Albu, Associate Professor of Art History, Art History Graduate Advisor, UMKC

Rachel Freeman, Conservator of Paper and Asian Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Materiality of a Modern Codex

Tatiana Falcón, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Reflecting upon tradition: Past-present thoughts regarding the Xalitla painting workshops and the future of museum-academic practices

Porfirio Gutiérrez, Multidisciplinary textile artist, Ventura, California
An Artist’s Perspective

Discussion

4:00 pm, CONCLUDING REMARKS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Painted Worlds Symposium is hosted by the University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), and is co-organized by the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the University Libraries (UMKC) and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, in association with the special exhibition Painted Worlds: Color and Culture in Mesoamerican Art, (Organized by LACMA as We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art) on view at the Nelson-Atkins, November 1, 2025-–February 8, 2026. We wish to thank the Marilyn T. and Byron C. Shutz Lecture Series, the Bernardin Haskell Lecture Series, and The William T. Kemper Foundation for their support of this symposium and its related lectures.