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Jade: China’s Enduring Obsession

The Pauline and Joseph Degenfelder Distinguished Lecture in Chinese Art

Tags for: Jade: China’s Enduring Obsession
  • Lecture
  • Featured
  • Ticket Required
Saturday, May 10, 2025, 2:00–3:00 p.m.
Dr. Jenny F. So, Former Senior Curator of Ancient Chinese Art, National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC
Location:  Gartner Auditorium
Suzanne and Paul Westlake Performing Arts Center
Free; Ticket Required
Reserve Ticket

About The Event

From the mysterious jades buried throughout China more than 5000 years ago, to princes dressed in jade suits inside jade-encrusted coffins, to the Olympic medals presented in 2008, jade has been the preeminent material of choice in Chinese society. Jenny F. So explores the reasons behind this obsession. 

So received her MA and PhD in art history from Harvard University before joining the Freer and Sackler Galleries at the Smithsonian Institution in 1990 as senior curator of their ancient Chinese art collections. In 2000, she left the Smithsonian for Hong Kong, to take up the position of professor of fine arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she also became director of that university’s Institute of Chinese Studies and Art Museum.

Sponsors

All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Principal support is provided by Dieter and Susan M. Kaesgen. Major annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, David and Robin Gunning, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, Medical Mutual of Ohio, Gail C. and Elliott L. Schlang, Shurtape Technologies, and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Generous annual support is provided by Gini and Randy Barbato, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, Sarah Nash, Courtney and Michael Novak, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, the Pickering Foundation, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Sally and Larry Sears Fund for Education Endowment, Roy Smith, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Trilling Family Foundation, Jack and Jeanette Walton, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

    The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

    Education programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.