The night
Before you go
A Matter of Feeling: Chinese Ceramics Through the Senses Get Tickets Thursday November 5, 2026 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET Online via Zoom Part of the Gardiner Signature Lecture Series The Ann Walker Bell Lecture Speaker: Dr. Laura Vigo, Curator of Asian Art and Archaeology, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts The Duran Duran song “A Matter of Feeling” seemed to define an era. Strangely enough, it offers an unexpectedly bittersweet point of departure for a talk that, in its own way, circles back in time. In this online lecture, Dr. Laura Vigo will turn to the origins of the Chinese ceramic collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) and the enduring feelings these objects have inspired in those who handled them—potters, users, collectors, and curators alike. She will also consider how attending to these sensory encounters might shift the way we engage with them today. The objects’ appeal has never been simply about beauty or romance. Rather, there is a profound sensuality to ceramics: the sensation of touch, the scent of fired clay, the sound of porcelain when gently struck, and, above all, the pleasure of looking closely. These perceptual connotations shaped the collecting
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