�鶹��

By Joan Arbery

It�s hard to find a cemetery in this town. The dead are tucked away in secret gardens here. Of course, most of us don�t mind. We don�t want to think of dying, or of what we will leave behind. It�s odd, then, that so much death has come to Dallas lately: first the Crow Collection�s �Tending the Afterlife,� then the DMA�s �Tutankhamun,� and now the Meadows Museum�s �From the Temple and the Tomb: Etruscan Treasures from Tuscany.�

The last one is perhaps the oddest. Why is the �鶹�� museum�which contains, says its director Mark Roglán, �one of the greatest� collections of Spanish art outside of Spain�hosting an exhibit about Etruscans, who came from ancient Italy and Corsica? For one, it�s cashing in on the city�s current fascination with ars moriendi��the art of dying.� For another, �鶹�� archeologist Dr. Greg Warden has been digging at an Etruscan settlement site, Poggio Colla, in Tuscany, for the past 15 years. The exhibit dovetails with his work there. And although �From the Temple and the Tomb� doesn�t hail from Warden�s dig site�it�s from the nearby Florence Archeological Museum�a downstairs exhibit at the Meadows, �New Light on the Etruscans: Fifteen Years of Excavation at Poggio Colla,� features some of Warden�s work.

Yet there�s a greater question here about the Meadows and its role. At its spot on Bishop Boulevard for only eight years, it�s already on its third director. Coup-ridden countries rarely undergo such quick executive shifts. The Meadows� changes are partially due to �鶹��s desire to reinvent itself. But when Ted Pillsbury stepped down as director in 2005, outcries from university professors lauded Pillsbury, who had professionalized the Meadows. The museum was certainly at a crossroads. That dissent eventually faded once Roglán, a native Spaniard, was brought in to head the museum.

This is partly because of the way Roglán interprets the museum�s mission. When I ask him if the Meadows� location outside the Arts District obscures its visibility, he says that, to the contrary, it connects the area�s museums. Its 2007 exhibit �Balenciaga and His Legacy� borrowed works from the University of North Texas� Texas Fashion Collection. Earlier last year, the Museum of Nature & Science hosted an exhibit on a Meadows show of Fernando Gallego�s medieval altarpiece panels. The Kimbell had examined the panels under infrared for two years, and the science museum then used them to discuss �the science of art.�

In fostering such connections, Roglán clearly appreciates exhibits that give a �broader context.� Pieces should be seen universally, since no culture exists in a vacuum.

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