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Piecing together ancient Andean stories at Krannert Art Museum

Krannert Art Museum has reopened its reimagined exhibition 'Fragmented Histories: Andean Art before 1600' after a year-long closure, following nearly a decade of collaborative research. Co-curators Allyson Purpura and Kasia Szremski worked with pre-contact Andean art historians and Peruvian archaeologists to restore context to looted artifacts from the Fred Olsen Collection, donated in 1967. The exhibition is organized into four themes—Unfinished Stories, The Mobile Life of Objects, Powerful Images, and Object Biographies—and includes digital displays that acknowledge the violent histories of looting and aim to share knowledge with descendant communities in Peru.

Krannert Art Museum’s opening turned a gallery into gathering

Krannert Art Museum in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, reopened after an 18-month closure for repairs and upgrades with a celebratory evening event. The crowd included students, retirees, new faculty, and local dignitaries such as Champaign Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen and Urbana Mayor DeShawn Williams. Speeches emphasized the museum's role as a community anchor, and performances by Peruvian Quechua hip-hop artist Liberato Kani and dancer Yana Paqcha energized the space. Attendees explored newly reinstalled collections, including works by Thomas Gainsborough and Nicola Victor Ziroli, as well as exhibitions like "Fragmented Histories: Andean Art Before 1600" and "Ronny Quevedo: a l l s t a r s."