Nevada Museum of Art: To Live Forever

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

June 11, 2011 - September 4, 2011

Feature Gallery South

Explore ancient Egyptian beliefs about life, death, and the afterlife in To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum. Featuring more than 100 objects including mummies, statuary, sarcophagi, coffins, gold jewelry, and elegantly-crafted vessels, the exhibition includes some of the greatest masterworks of Egyptian artistic heritage. The exhibition also helps to explain the process of mummification, the conduct of a funeral, and different types of tombs—answering questions at the core of the public’s fascination with ancient Egypt.

Two of the main ancient Egyptian cultural beliefs that have endured for thousands of years are a belief in the afterlife, and the view that death was an enemy that could be vanquished. To Live Forever features objects that illustrate a range of strategies the ancient Egyptians developed to defeat death, including mummification and various rituals performed in the tomb. The exhibition contains funeral equipment used by the rich, the middle class, and the poor, and also reveals what the Egyptians believed they would find in the next world. The economics of the funeral are examined, including how the poor tried to imitate the costly appearance of the grave goods of the rich in order to ensure a better place in the afterlife.

Specially-designed interpretation for this exhibition acknowledges the recent political revolution in Egypt and includes speculative conjecture from best-selling science fiction author Bruce Sterling, accompanied by an 80-foot panoramic mural depicting a possible future Egypt. In much the same way that the antiquities on display offer only traces of historical evidence helping us to understand Egypt’s past, Sterling’s contribution and the accompanying mural illustrates one of many possible outcomes for the future of this dynamic and rapidly-changing country.

Continue your journey into Egypt with "Mystery of the Nile," the full-dome film at the Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center showing daily at 3pm, June 3 – September 5, 2011. Navigate the 3,260-mile Blue Nile journey from Ethiopia to the Mediterranean Sea in 16-foot rafts and some of the most extreme white-water rapids in the world. For tickets and details call (775) 784-4812, or visit www.planetarium.unr.edu.

For information on the Museum's related programs and events, please visit www.nevadaart.org To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum has been organized by the Brooklyn Museum.

[image and text from the Nevada Museum of Art's website]