Portrait credit: Eileen Travell
Ep.208 Dr. Andrea Myers Achi is trained as a Byzantinist, and her curatorial practice focuses on Byzantine art of the Mediterranean Basin and Northeast Africa. She graduated from Barnard College in 2007 with a BA in Ancient Studies. She thought she would become a Classics Professor but fell in love with Byzantine art and archaeology her senior year during a study abroad program on an excavation in Egypt. Dr. Achi went on to receive two Masters’ of Arts degrees from New York University, the first in Ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian Studies with a concentration in archaeology and the second in Byzantine Art. In 2018, she earned a Ph.D. in Art History and Archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
Currently, Dr. Achi is the Mary and Michael Jaharis Associate Curator of Byzantine Art
in the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In her role, she specializes in the art and archaeology of Late Antiquity and Byzantium, with a particular interest in illuminated manuscripts and ceramics. She has brought this expertise to bear on exhibitions like Art and Peoples of the Kharga Oasis (2017), Crossroads: Power and Piety (2020), The Good Life (2021), Africa & Byzantium (2023), and Afterlives: Contemporary Art in the Byzantine Crypt (2024) at The Met and in numerous presentations and publications.
Metropolitan Museum
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/afterlives-contemporary-art-in-the-byzantine-crypt
https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/articles/2024/05/afterlives-conversation
https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/medieval-art-and-the-cloisters/staff-list
https://www.metmuseum.org/met-publications/africa-and-byzantium
Yale University Press https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9781588397713/africa-and-byzantium/
Center for Curatorial Leadershiphttps://www.curatorialleadership.org/participants/ccl-smh-curators-forum/
Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/art/2024/01/04/africa-byzantium-exhibit-met-review/?_pml=1
Barnard Magazine https://www.bgc.bard.edu/about/news/1003/08-feb-2024-exhibiting-africa
https://barnard.edu/magazine/winter-2024/andrea-myers-achi-07
Princeton https://humanities.princeton.edu/event/africa-byzantium-at-the-met/
Tiwana Contemporary https://www.tiwani.co.uk/publications/26-africa-and-byzantium-the-museum-of-metropolitan-art/
The National Herald
Artnet https://news.artnet.com/career-stories/andrea-achi-1933101
National Endowment for the Humanities https://www.neh.gov/article/marvels-byzantine-africa
https://www.neh.gov/news/disorienting-beauty-africa-byzantium
Apollo Magazine https://www.apollo-magazine.com/andrea-myers-achi-40-under-40-usa-the-thinkers/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-myers-achi-9b575168
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